


Natural Selection

by Lordginger



Category: Kill la Kill (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Action, Action/Adventure, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Blood and Violence, Cross-Posted on FanFiction.Net, Dubious Morality, Dysfunctional Family, F/F, F/M, Family Drama, For Want of a Nail, Implied Sexual Content, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Implied/Referenced Domestic Violence, POV Multiple, Regret, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-12-15
Updated: 2021-02-20
Packaged: 2021-02-26 06:15:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 20
Words: 124,324
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21798970
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lordginger/pseuds/Lordginger
Summary: Fleeing from a cruel fate, Satsuki Kiryuin searches to fulfil her father's last request, to prevent the plans of her mother and the Life Fibers. Called back to the academy she built by an old friend, she finds it under the tyrannical, blood-soaked rule of her sister Ryuko and her Kamui Junketsu. It's about time for a family reunion.
Relationships: Mankanshoku Mako/Matoi Ryuuko
Comments: 35
Kudos: 75





	1. Sigh No More

Chapter 1: Sigh No More

Honnouji Academy had never been famed for its beauty. Even the envied mansions on the upper echelons had been designed around sharp utilitarianism, aiming to cram the maximum number of potential students into its protective, albeit ultra-competitive, bastion against the madness of the outside world. But the city had previously retained some form of grace, what with its clean edges and perfectly positioned buildings. Now, it had been reduced to a warzone.

Here in the One-Star accommodations, the tightly packed, uniform grey pillars of apartments blocks were scarred with slashes of wild graffiti. Some rang out call signs, claiming territory for this gang, or that club, the difference between the two a faint line these days. Between the larger murals, smaller declarations of unruly independence. Phone numbers for seedy engagements, promises of death to the reader, assertions that a student had simply been in the area once, and could think of no better legacy than to scrawl their name on public property. And yet, despite the displeasure gnawing at his respect for proper public morals, he could not find it within himself to blame whoever had written their name and run. It seemed to have been the final act of a student joining the fate of many others who had been promised protection, only to find themselves betrayed.

The cold grey streets of Honnouji were dyed thick with blood these days.

It rose up with each heavy footstep the cloaked figure ground out on his uphill climb, remnants of former students kicked up about his heels and clinging to the bottom of his boot. The red dust settled for only a moment, the man staring at the long road ahead of him. To the peak, pulsing a crimson heartbeat.

"Never again."

The promise was little consolidation to the whispers behind him. Always behind, lurking in the places he could not reach, no matter how he tried to come to terms with them. They refused engagement, fleeing on the wind. You did this. She rules because of you. This blood has spilled from your hands. If only you had been strong enough to hold it all.

With a weary sigh, the man kicked up dried flakes of red once more, servos whirring as he continued his ascent towards the gates of hell.

* * *

"In 1933, the National Socialist German Worker's Party came to power. This was the birth of Chancellor Hitler. Eventually, Germany's post-war democracy gave rise to fascism."

The students were barely clinging on through the lecture. A good proportion had succumbed to post lunch tiredness, resting their heads behind open textbooks. Even those keeping attention were doing little in the way of notetaking. Hard to blame them really, what with the reality of another Naturals Election on the horizon. Nevertheless, he persisted. If even one of the No-Star students learned from history's mistakes, maybe his time spent undercover would have been worthwhile.

The scratch of a dry lesson etched out in dry chalk was brought to a thudding halt as the heavy classroom door was knocked upon twice, slamming open with a tongue of purple carpet rolling out in front of the assembled desks. There was no student found sleeping as rainbow flashes lit the gloom. At the snap of fingers, One-Star students flooded into the room, twin lines of authority announcing the arrival of their leader. But for all the flash and thunder, the girl that stepped in after them was rather slight, maybe shoulder-high to the shortest member of her entourage. The girl who would be queen walked her personal catwalk; a purple ermine cape awkwardly attached to the lapels of her uniform. Three golden conjoined stars ran across her chest, stark against the crisp white of the rest of her ensemble.

"Excuse me, we're in the middle of- "

Two students had him by the arms before he could finish protesting, dragging him to his knees so that the Disciplinary Chair could look him in the eye. She adjusted her gold-rimmed glasses, pressing the rounded head of her customary staff of command to his lips.

"Hush down. I'm here on official business."

**DISCIPLINARY COMMITTEE CHAIR - MAIKO OGURE**

"Now then, students of second year, class K, rise for your empress."

The students scrambled to their feet at the sharp tap of Maiko's ornate gold and black staff on the carpet, the bladed globe atop it standing a foot taller than its wielder. Only one person had ever mocked the disparity between weapon and user, and hallways whispers said you could still find the soot outline on the outer walls, if you had the stomach for it. A rare display of public force from the council member. Normally her arrival was the signal that one of the faces in the class simply wasn't turning up again for lessons the next day, their name struck from the register. Maiko adjusted her glasses once more, her eyes hidden in the reflective glare.

"We have determined that there is someone who intends to harm Honnouji Academy among you. As such, this filthy traitor is to be punished immediately. Now, as all explanations will go completely ignored, I suggest you save my precious time and hand yourself over now."

There was a long, pregnant pause, broken by the eruption of smoke.

* * *

The Spy From Osaka was trapped in a world of frustration. He'd gone for the stairwell, only for the door handle to be electrified. He'd smashed through it and bumbled into a bear trap. The stairs had been littered with rakes, landmines and thumbtacks, forcing him to don his stolen goods ahead of time. The power of the Goku Uniform had seen him through the worst of the bedlam, but the newfound strength he'd acquired had been drained as he'd had to dodge, endure and dismantle every step of the way down. Breaking out into the main courtyard, he'd almost felt home free, right up until the ground collapsed out from under his feet. Twisting his body around bamboo spears, he found himself staring up into a golden corona of light, spilling out across Honnouji Academy from the transformed Maiko Ogure, slowly descending from on high with purple coattails trailing in the wind and a wicked laugh echoing throughout the courtyard.

**THREE STAR GOKU UNIFORM – EMPRESS REGALIA**

The unflattering uniform had transformed into a golden skin-tight suit bedazzled with gems of every hue, the awkward cape now a regal trio of high society tails that suited her perfectly. A platinum tiara adorned her brow, her face suddenly made up as if a master artist had applied every inch of pale foundation and purple lipstick. Golden heels made touchdown as he extracted himself from the pit.

"You know, even with such a shoddy trap like a tear gas grenade to hand, I'm almost impressed that you made it this far. Still, we both know who's really to thank for that, don't we? Amazing, the strepower that can be obtained from even one miserly star for a nobody like yourself. You've seen it's defensive power, so how about taking a swing?"

Even after the beatdown he'd suffered, the thrum of power still ran through his veins, throwing him forward at Maiko, standing with arms wide open. But, just as fist was about to rightfully connect with her smug smile, she vanished in a cloud of smoke, a log clattering to the ground where once she'd stood.

"Nice try, but too obvious. And far too much difference in our talent."

The heavy globe rocked his head with a meaty whack from behind. All power to his legs lost in an instant, the spy crumpled into the grip of a multifaceted runic glyph left in her place. Lightning roared through his body, flesh singeing as arcs of energy ran in wild abandon. Thoroughly blackened to a crisp, ropes wrapped around his joints, spinning him clean out of the uniform and depositing it neatly into a clothes hanger dangling from Maiko's staff. The student body was gathered at the windows now, banging and braying for judgement to be passed down upon the traitor. And Maiko had no intentions of disappointing her people. The bladed globe split open; a microphone concealed within.

"Ladies and Gentlemen! Once again, I, Maiko Ogure, have defended Honnouji Academy from those who would undermine and overthrow our illustrious society! So long as I sit in the Disciplinary Chair, no law breaker, spy, traitor or Nudist shall oppose us, for they have not even one one-hundredth of our strength! The power given to us by our queen!"

Summoned to the fore, blood-red light flooded the courtyard, washing out from the spire at the heart of the academy. Maiko's golden glow was extinguished in the wake of its arrival, as the Student Council President's presence wormed its way into the core of everyone watching. High above the reach of any student, a pure white heel snapped into place. The call to attention from all, with no man able to turn his head away when beckoned.

Thorny armoured plates covered every inch of skin, culminating in twin spires erupting from her shoulders. From them, piercing orange eyes stared down with cold indifference, a harsh contrast to the manic grin on the face of the alien outfit's wearer. Running a gauntleted hand through black and red strands, the ruler of Honnouji Academy took up the mantle of preaching.

**HONNOUJI ACADEMY STUDENT COUNCIL PRESIDENT – RYUKO KIRYUIN**

"I shouldn't have to give you the pitch at this point, but just in case you're a newly enrolled transfer student: Fight. Every living creature has to do it. Fight for survival, for food and shelter. Fight for a future, for prosperity and to stay on top. Or fuck it, fight, because fighting is so much god-damned fun. But in order to fight, you need power. And power can't be stolen, borrowed or bartered. Those who try to take shortcuts, those who want to leapfrog past their station, those that don't understand how powerless they are, they have no business standing on my stage! And they- "

She cut out, staring past Maiko, to the cloaked figure standing behind the elite. The battered former student hung under his arm.

"Hey buddy, I think you're confused. The Naturals Election ain't until next week. You won't get paid just cause you put that little shit outta my misery."

"I am well aware of the date, Ryuko Kiryuin."

The low voice that rumbled from within the robes carried just as much force as the rapturous calls from on high. Maiko fumbled a step back without even realising, pulling herself together as the hood was lowered. Pale scars cut across the dark skin of the stern young man, glaring up at Honnouji's peak, to the woman hissing venom back at him through clenched teeth.

"After all, I have come to set Honnouji Academy back on its rightful course."

**LIFE FIBER HUNTER – IRA GAMAGOORI**


	2. Chase The Ace

Chapter 2: Chase the Ace

Honnouji Academy held its breath, the thousands of students in attendance waiting for yet another, more brilliant show then the beatdown they had just borne witness to. The Fall of Ira Gamagoori was a common fable of warning in the hallways, a tale with a short and violent moral: don't cross Ryuko Kiryuin if you want to live. And yet, here he was, standing bold as brass, with only a number of scars on his face to tell the tale. As if the man hadn't been reduced to a bloody pulp and launched from the peak of Honnouji.

There was a husky bark of laughter, followed by another, and another, winding around the courtyard and echoing out into the city, until even those in the lowest districts of Honno City were made aware of their master's amusement by the shaking of the earth. After a spell, Ryuko was able to calm herself, a few airless coughs shaking her frame as she cleared one red-rimmed eye of a tear.

"So, the prodigal arsehole returns! Is this your grand plan Gamagoori? Planning on carrying each student out one by one, are we?"

The scion of the Kiryuin Conglomerate howled with mad laughter once more, leaning on the frayed remains of a kendo stick for balance. Even the twin antenna in her hair seemed to be sticking up in amusement.

"Still, if you're here to ask for your job back, I'm afraid things are gonna get reeeal awkward around here. Ya know, considering you're looking at your replacement and all."

Ira briefly fixed his gaze on Maiko, standing unsurely with as much of the staff between her and him as she could manage, a glowing ball of light poised at his chest.

"Not if this were the last bastion of civilisation on the planet."

"Yeah, thought you'd say something like that. Well, this has been entertaining, but I guess we've run our course. Can't really figure out why you showed up in the first place to be honest. Guess when God was handing brains, you were too busy yellin' at everyone to stay in line. Maiko?"

"Yes, my lady?"

"Kill him, and get that spy back, would'ja? I've got better things to do with my time, like seeing if Uzu's back in the world of the living."

"Yes, my lady!"

Ryuko turned on her heel, exiting the scene as the heavens rumbled, opening up with a sudden lash of rain across the courtyard. In the back of his mind, Ira hoped the girls had found themselves a shelter, as he slowly went for the firearm on his hip. Maiko was taking small steps, an uncertainty in her demeanour despite her bold words.

"Listen. We don't have to do this. You don't have to listen to that madwoman."

"Oh my, is that fear I hear, Ira Gamagoori? Recognition of my strepower? I can't say I blame you. The Three-Star uniforms of today have far outstripped the parameters of the rags you wore in office. But see, unlike you, I am a loyal servant to our queen. And I know exactly what will happen if I fail her."

"And yet you do not move to strike."

"I have people for that. Boys!"

She snapped her fingers, and all at once, a tidal wave of One-Star students rushed the courtyard, coming at him from all directions. Maiko vanished into the crowd as the surge of students fell upon him, a great dogpile that engulfed the mountain of a man, each one punching, kicking and biting at every little scrap of flesh they could find. The pile erupted a second later, each and every student blown back like leaves in the wind. Before they could even hit the ground, Ira was turning tail and fleeing towards the gates, only to be stopped in his tracks by the trap lain for him.

A massive spider web had been spun between the arches, thick and glistening with rain. Maiko floated above, smugly protected by a couple of students holding umbrellas.

"Oh, so sorry Gamagoori. But there's no way out from here. You could try making your way through the school, I suppose, if you feel like wading into a legion of devoted warriors, all of whom would delight in placing your head before Lady Kiryuin. Or you could do us all a favour and die right here!"

Ira backhanded a student, the boy's uniform bursting into loose threads as the naked lad was sent catapulting away. Electricity crackled, sparks lighting up the shadows cast by the rolling downpour.

"I'd rather cut my way through this web of injustices!"

From within the folds of the cloak, a massive armoured fist erupted, dark green metal branded with bronze artistry. Ira grabbed a handful of threads and, with a roar of defiance, the lightning about his hand lashed out, rippling through the entirety of the web and setting it ablaze. He shoulder-checked his way through, burning flakes of webbing catching on the robes as he broke out, heading down the long stairs at double speed. Maiko's frustrated screams chased him all the way down the Three-Star district.

* * *

To call the remains of the old Matoi manor a husk would to be too charitable. The fire-damaged foundations had been worn down by weather and time, the ashes from the blaze long since fled into the wind for greener pastures. Scorched earth with some timbers and girders jutting out to prove that a building had even stood here at all. And yet it found itself with visitors, picking about the ruins under the cloudy sky. Two young women gingerly navigated the debris, turning over stones and examining blackened remains of furniture.

"Are you sure there's going to be anything left here Satsuki? The Grand Couturier sure did a number on this place."

The smaller girl was a walking assortment of gizmos, gadgets and tools, attached to and about an electric pink catsuit to match her bright pink hair. They ranged from the absurd, such as the yoyo slotted neatly onto her forearm, to the concerning, such as the serrated knife upon her belt. At her feet, a small robotic monkey pattered about, floodlight eyes scanning patches of earth for clues.

**LIFE FIBER HUNTER – NONON JAKUZURE**

**(AND MARIKA)**

The taller girl rose from where she had been examining the floor, turning on her heel and heading for the boundary between former kitchen and living room. Her assemble was simpler, but in no way plainer for it; a pale blue samurai kimono and silver breastplate for protection, with three swords hanging from her hips, each one dressed in a white scabbard. Her long black hair was wound back into a long ponytail, trailing behind like a calligrapher's brush at work as she made her way, soiling her pale gloves with gentle touches to the skeleton of the house.

"Nui Harime has two particular talents that she has honed to perfection. Sewing and murder. She is also legendarily reluctant to clean up after herself. More than that, Dr Matoi has spent his entire life on the run from REVOCS. The man is responsible for a vast, underground resistance of nudists that manage to frustrate and evade the clutches of the largest multinational conglomerate to ever disgrace the face of the planet."

She came to a pause, running a finger along a particularly hale and whole piece of the house.

"As such, I doubt he would keep anything of value out where it could be scrutinised, or worse, captured. That being the case, I imagine it was the good doctor who started the fire, not caring for what would be lost up here. And as such…"

She pressed in on something, and a grinding sound began to rattle out, a perfect square in the floor opening up not two feet from where Nonon was standing. A pitch-black abyss beckoned to the pair.

"I believe he would store everything of worth in a place where neither flame nor Nui could reach it."

A rare smile graced the face of the taller girl.

"Good enough for you, Nonon?"

**LIFE FIBER HUNTER - SATSUKI KIRYUIN**

Nonon gazed uneasily into the pit, the bottom of the shaft so deep down that the glare of Marika's eyes petered off long before anything of note was revealed.

"I mean, seeing how we're probably about to throw ourselves headlong into that… not really? Nothing for nothing Satsuki, but we don't even know where it ends up."

"No worries. I shall go first."

"No, wait!"

But the tip of Satsuki's ponytail had already vanished out of sight before Nonon could move to stop her, watching helplessly as her friend hit a corner and disappeared into the depths of the metal vents. Marika matched her master's desperate clutching at the side of the pit, waiting for any sort of sign. The ominous crash that carried back up them was anything but reassuring.

"Satsuki! Tell me you're still alive!"

Chest-tightening silence was the only answer she received. Nonon looked over to her pet, biting the bottom of her lip.

"Guess we've got no choice, huh, Marika?"

The monkey scurried up onto her shoulder obediently, gripping her collar tightly as Nonon took another hesitant look into the void.

"If I die here, I'm going to kill her."

And with that, she closed her eyes and took a step forward.

The freefall lasted for three stomach-soaring seconds before her backside crashed into metal, the rest of the trip down an undignified tumble as she was bounced from wall to wall, Marika slapping into her with each slam and sudden change of direction, right until the floor dropped out completely from under her again, sending her plummeting straight down. Her unbidden cry was cut short by her crash landing, falling neatly into Satsuki's outstretched arms in the manner most befitting a corporate princess. Right until fourteen pounds of primate machinery came crashing down right onto her midriff, knocking the wind clean out of her. The world was still spinning as Satsuki set her right-side up, seating her onto a pile of fabric samples.

"I hate you, Satsuki Kiryuin. I hate you so much."

"I have told you time and time again that you could and should leave if you wished. At this point, you have no excuse."

"Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me another fifteen or so times, and I'm probably just asking for trouble, right?"

"More or less."

"Good. I love trouble. Shall we see what we've gotten ourselves into this week?"

Satsuki pulled her up, allowing Nonon to have a proper look at exactly where they'd crash landed. A large garage, judging from the chemical smell and the mountains of discarded cloth that surrounded them. At the edge of the room, long abandoned tailoring equipment sat, gathering dust.

"Yeah, this looks like the kind of place a middle-aged man with no kids winds up spending his entire life pottering about. Hard to believe this is where the Nudists got started."

"Outdated equipment, an extremely limited quantity of Life Fibers, and the fear that one day REVOCS would find him even out here, and bring their full might crashing down upon him. Perfect conditions to create a miracle such as the Rending Scissors."

"Very poetic, but miracles aren't much use if no-one uses them." Nonon bit out as they slowly trudged their way around the edge of the fabric mountain, heading to a workplace on the far side of the room and the fuse box besides it.

"Nudist Beach will be dealt with in due course. We simply have to bide our time for the time being."

Memories of the last time they had dealt with Nudist Beach came to mind, causing Nonon to make double time. In the half-light, she could almost see the trail of blood leaking from Satsuki's head again.

The fuse box had burnt out long ago, but replacements were at hand, curtesy of a REVOCS security outpost they had knocked out of commission two months prior. The lights came on in rows, exposing the den as a hideaway twice the size it had seemed in the dark. Satsuki was already in full swing, her eyes darting about the shadows and marking out plans.

"Two entrances, including the one we came in from. It will have to be boarded up; we cannot risk unwanted company dropping in on us."

"So that's why you insisted on coming here. A new base of operations."

"Indeed, we'd be hard pressed to find a better option. Honnouji Academy is twenty minutes away by automobile, and the outward appearance should deter unwanted locals and REVOCS, so long as we watch our exits and entrances carefully. Watertight ceiling with enough space for three sleeping quarters, not to mention on-site equipment included. The lack of any heating may be an issue, but there's certainly enough material to create ample amounts of both blankets and thick clothing."

"Ma'am, permission to complain?"

"Granted."

"This place reeks. Like, I'm having a hard time picking out the worst offender between Old Man Smell, ammonia and what I'm pretty sure is a tint of blood. Furthermore, the idea of sleeping near and potentially wearing a pack of dead Life Fibers freaks me the fuck out. Moreover, despite the location, none of us can drive. The Toad's the only one of us old enough to learn, and he's currently bereft of license, lessons and automobile."

Satsuki withdraw a map of the area from a pocket, spreading it out on the work bench. Nearly every suburb, road, rural zone and city point for fifty miles featured some sort of commentary, highlight or otherwise encircling as to how it might benefit the group's efforts. From potential escape routes to roadside rest stops, nothing had gone unnoticed.

"Obviously. There is a bus stop and a train station nearby; both will take us directly to the heart of Honnouji. As for the smell and the fabrics, we can remove both with a full day of cleaning, something we can embark upon now while we await Ira's return with his scouting report."

"Alright, even considering that's the worst way to lead a charge into enemy territory ever, we're still lacking basic necessities. The lights work, but I can't see any plumbing down here, for a start. We're gonna be spending a week just getting everything up and running, and that's another week Ryuko gets to run her bloody little kingdom."

Satsuki tapped a finger to an area of blue marked with two rings, close to the area where Matoi Manor had once stood.

"I took the precaution of scouting the area beforehand. This lake is a five-minute walk away. Provided we bury our waste by the treeline, the water should provide a valuable drinking and bathing source for the duration of our time here."

Had they been in one of those animated shows Ryuko had been fond of as a child, Satsuki suspected that this would be the moment when the colour would drain from Nonon's face completely.

"Alternatively, there is a public restroom attached to this petrol station some fifteen minutes away. However, given its proximity to Honnouji, disguises will be required if we wish- "

"Don't care, that one. That's the one."

* * *

The trip down was a lot less exhausting than climbing the mountain, even with disciplinary students in pursuit. Honnouji's streets may have coated in blood and ill manners, but the layout remained the same, and the investigatory beat he had once walked every day before classes had ingrained a perfect map for him to follow. Maiko and her men had taken the initiative to lock down the main roads, but he was long and lost away in back alleys before they'd had time to erect the first barricade. Even a man of his stature could vanish when all eyes were pointed the wrong way. The Two-Star district came and went in short order, bringing him back to rows of uniform housing apartments.

Here was where the game was won or lost. Maiko would be getting desperate. Standard procedure would have failed her, but removing the disciplinary students from the main roads would be a waste of time, and make her look incapable to boot. Hence, now would come the calling in of favours from the other Elites, to see which clubs could be mobilised before he hit the slums and became untraceable. Fire-damaged and ruined as they were, the former No-Star quarters were simply too large to police effectively, with too many paths leading out of the city by which a student might play hooky. And of course, all of this had to be done before his newly acquired package expired. The boy he'd rescued was still breathing, but each little gasp was shallow at best, and Maiko had truly run him through the wringer before Ira had stepped in to save him. Not soon enough. His own failing, not wanting to compromise the mission he'd been given. But Satsuki would understand, especially given that he'd captured one of Takarada's pawns. Information on both sides from one source.

A flash of gold erupted overhead, the faint outline of Maiko surging towards the slums with exactly the same idea that he'd had. Ira would concede this, if nothing else; Ryuko had found a perfect successor to his council seat. Respect and enforcing the rules; however twisted, was one thing. It took a certain kind of person to be able to put themselves in the mind of the target, and predict their attempts to evade the law. Of course, in Maiko Ogure's case, it was likely because she was just as much of a crook as those she pursued.

Tower blocks came and went, and as he descended, a terrible thought came to him: Honnouji was simply too quiet. He'd been expecting the whole city to be tearing after him, desperate to prove themselves to their master. But as he peaked out into a cross-section of road surrounding a general walking area, the situation slowly dawned on him. The path he'd mapped out featured one flaw: he had to cross this wide, exposed area, surrounded by tower blocks on all sides. In short, the perfect kill box.

He made to turn around, and saw a glimpse of legs ducking out of sight. Three students, somehow having picked up on his tail and pursued in him into this area. No alerts to make him change course, no giving the game away by directing his path with forced battles. Whichever club was after him also had a crook in charge. He went for his gun, but the sound of clicking dropped him to his stomach. Seconds later, the wall around him began to dissolve in a hail of gunfire, the world ripped apart with the roar of thousands of bullets being discharged all at once, safeties off and full auto locked in.

Keeping the student under him, he slowly dragged himself forward until he was behind a tower building proper. Depositing the boy into a dumpster without hesitation, he swept around the opposite corner to find three One-Star students readying hunting rifles. Three swift swings from his fist dropped them, only for the hail of gunfire to rip down the alleyway in turn. Bullets tore his cloak to pieces, but the three boys were not so well protected, erupting into bloody sprays as he ducked back out of sight. Suddenly, the gunfire stopped, and a Yankee voice rang out.

"Ah shit, those were our boys. Fine, whatever! Ira Gamagoori! Come out with your hands up! There's nowhere to go!"

The demand was followed by the sound of a hundred gun-cocks. Ira grit his teeth. An entire club so trigger happy that they'd fired upon their own men without thinking. If he refused to comply, they'd just keep firing until the until tower came crashing down, and that served no-one. Time to go loud.

Removing a helmet from his belt, the world faded into darkness for a second before lighting up again, various pieces of text and numbers overlaying his view with information for the battle to come. He made his way out into the alleyway once more. Two of the boys had been lucky enough to die straight away. The third was trying to hold his guts together, leaning against the wall with small, panicked breaths. Coming out into the street, the side of his vision was filled by a text box identifying the Club President leading the pack.

**SHOOTING CLUB PRESIDENT – BEROS GOYLE**

Blonde pigtails blew gently in the wind as a number of red dots focused on his chest. Under Ryuko's rule, Honnouji had lowered its standards greatly, which was the only reason Ira could think of for how this delinquent could make it to the rank of Club President. With those ridiculously short shorts she wore exposing her tanned skin; it was easy to see why the ranks of the Shooting Club had expanded with the ranks of the twitching perverts taking aim behind her. Still, even if the ganguro girl's outfit was shameful, there was nothing to be underestimated about the gigantic, triple-barrelled Gatling gun that took the place of her right arm, a great many coils strapped to ammo boxes on her back.

"Before you do anything, come collect your men. One of them can still be saved."

Beros blinked twice, then motioned towards the alley. A couple more One-Stars crept out the corner of his vision, slipping past him and running away with the bodies. And all the while they ran away, Ira's helmet gathered data. Enemy positions, the number in each building, what they were armed with. By the time the injured were clear and away from the scene about to unfold, he had all the information he needed to know about the battle to come.

"Thanks for that. You're a nice guy, don't you know?"

Beros smiled, all fangs and no charm.

"A shame nice guys finish last. Open fire!"

Ira vanished in a hail of smoke and bullets as every gun nut let loose with everything they had, submachine guns rattling out alongside concentrated bursts from the snipers on the rooftops. The Shooting Club laid it on until every member was spent, broad grins all around as what little cover the intruder had crumbled into dust. Beros popped the wad of bubble-gum she'd been blowing with a smirk.

"Good work boys! This should place us nicely in Lady Kiryuin's favour."

"I'm afraid the only place you're going is the tailor."

Smiles turned to shock as the smoke cloud parted, rippling off of Ira as he emerged from the rubble unharmed. To the dismay of the shooting club, he was not unarmed. His ragged cloak had been stripped away completely by the attack, revealing dark green plate armour with black pauldrons, a golden double-headed eagle embossed on the chest. The left fist was twice the size of the right, and still crackling with power as lightning danced between the knuckles. There was not a mark or scratch from the assault anywhere on the metal. The red lenses of the helmet lit up as a heavy gun, more a grenade launcher than a conventional firearm, roamed from member to member.

**GAMAGOORI METALWORKS POWER ARMOUR – MARK VII**

The Shooting Club had about a split second to recover before Ira opened fire with just as much pace as his attackers. Club members fell apart in rapid-fire droves, instantly stripped of their Goku Uniforms as the rounds erupted into sprays of needles, packed grenades that ripped through each rooftop and balcony gathered cluster of students as if they weren't even there. Within ten seconds, the Shooting Club was down to one member. And she was too busy drooling to care, bubble-gum falling from her mouth.

"God…Damn. You gotta tell me were to get one of those babies."

Ira simply levelled the boltgun at her, prompting a quick-draw from the president in return. Warm wind blew down the decimated street, thousands of casings rolling down towards the slums. The combatants remained still; waiting for a cue they both knew was coming. It came soon enough. A No-Star tumbled from a first story window, and the tower blocks were lost in a haze of smoke and gunpowder.

* * *

"Maiko, you have to ask permission before you borrow other people's things! It's rude otherwise!"

Maiko had spent a long time making her way into the council, but she would have happily traded away her Goku Uniform for five minutes alone in a dark room with a pipe wrench and the idiot trying to lecture her. Stupid, ditzy, retarded fool of an idiot, who only had her position in first place because she was sleeping with Ryuko. They pretended otherwise, but everyone knew. They knew Mako was just some unworthy bitch, but no-one had the balls to step up to Ryuko and tell her so. Maiko would have done it herself by now, but she was still waiting on the right time, and the proper information, and nothing else.

Still, the girl whose features could only be described as round kept banging on with one of her bothersome speeches, preaching in the centre of the student council chamber in complete ignorance to Maiko's dreams of ultra-violence. Miraculously, the idiot seemed to understand it wasn't magically reverting opinions as she'd have liked, so she brought in the big gun.

"Ryuko, it's not right that she took one of Uzu's clubs! And she didn't even check with me before going to boss about the No-Star classes! Exams are coming up; my friends don't need all these disruptions!"

**NON-ATHLETIC COMMITTEE CHAIR AND CUSTODIAN OF NO-STAR STUDENTS – MAKO MANKANSHOKU**

Upon her iron throne, Ryuko leant on one arm and sighed, her usual demeanour whenever the Elites started fighting amongst themselves. Typical tyrant, she wanted all of the power and none of the responsibility of ruling. Her mood became rather more charged as a cup of black coffee was presented to her, courtesy of her butler. Satisfied with the drink, she turned her attentions back to her underlings.

"You really should have asked, Ogure. I only approved cause I was too busy laughing at you screaming for more men like a five-dollar hooker."

There was a snort of laughter from the battered mess of a man in the room, and Maiko suddenly found herself not caring for the opinions of her boss.

"Sanageyama could barely remember his own name five minutes ago, let alone consent to a club loan! Would you rather I waste time and allow a traitor and a thief go free, despite how badly it would damage the academy? If the secret of the Goku Uniforms got out, it could allow our foreign rivals to move in on REVOCS territory."

"Not my concern." Ryuko smothered behind a yawn. "Besides, what rivals? We brought up Nike last week and Nui's bringing the last couple of stragglers into the fold soon, so unless some new bastards come crawling out the woodwork, we're safe as houses. Hell, I think I'd prefer someone else stepping into the ring. I've been so bored since we took Kobe that I'd love to see some new competition."

"You mean other than the Takarada family, who'd love to muscle in on Kiryuin space?"

That one penetrated her thick skull, Ryuko's eye twitching violently as her uniform rustled. It was a strange habit, the way the scarf would shift whenever Ryuko became displeased. If Maiko didn't know better, she would have sworn it was trying to assure her.

"Fucking restraining order. One of these days I'm gonna make that ginger twat wish all his teeth were gold, and damn the results. Alright, fine! As the Shooting Club's had their arses handed to them, fuck me if I know how, and the Automotive Airsoft Club are still getting into gear… Inumuta! Tell me you can do some nerd shit to help out Ogure, and then feel free to tell me how that big bastard managed to sneak up on us and dismantle one of our largest clubs single-handedly!"

Already micro-managing several things at once from the comfort of his laptop, the bespectacled boy's collar popped open. God, that was so hot.

"I have already sent the order to shut down outside modes of transport, and directed some of the Two-Star disciplinary students to key locations, backed up by some of our heavy artillery. Every camera in the city has been fed his profile and will be providing a live feed the second he makes his move. If by some miracle he makes it out of town, I have pre-emptively filed a report with both the police and the military. Ira Gamagoori follows rules to a tee, and his weapon seems to be designed purely to destroy Life Fibers, as evidenced by the Shooting Club's lack of real injuries that weren't caused by them mucking about on rooftops or firing on their own men. If a proper authority manages to locate him, he will likely surrender into custody without further incident. In the unlikely event he resists arrest, all he'll have going for him is his bulk. Either way, the Kiryuin group can take responsibility of him from there."

**INFORMATION AND STRATEGY COMMITTEE CHAIR – HOUKA IMUMUTA**

"Thank you Inumuta." Maiko oozed, shooting him a flirtatious wink. With a silent nod, he turned back to his laptop. Strong and silent. What a man, unlike the slobs and plebs she normally had to endure in her day-to-day life. Smart too, her only intellectual equal amongst the student council. If only he could pick up on her advances, but then again, a little bit of obliviousness did have a certain charm to it as well.

"I've got an idea. Scrap that, send everyone home and I'll hunt Gamagoori down in a minute."

The attention in the room turned to the handsome green haired swordsman, currently being attended to by a gaggle of students from the Nursing Committee. Patching the battered fool back together after one of his bouts against Ryuko was practically a full-time job for the simpering little girls, a complete mismanagement of resources to his ego. He wore a wild smile in spite of his bloodied, crooked nose, the stupid cocksure bastard.

**ATHLETIC COMMITTEE CHAIR – UZU SANAGEYAMA**

That one got Ryuko laughing again.

"Uzu, you've already gone five rounds with me today, and you're still hungry for more? Damn boy, you're insatiable!"

She ignored Mako's blushing, instead pointing her towards a seat. Uzu waved his nurses away and staggered to his feet. He stood his ground for maybe a second before his legs buckled out from underneath him, almost crashing through the coffee table if not for the red string that nipped out from Ryuko's wrist and nailed him clean in the chest. Gently, she eased his body back into his chair, the string lapping away a drop of blood from his nose before it retreated. She waved the nurses back in again, a job they set to with gusto.

"Which is why you're not going out today. Sorry dude, you're DOA. Besides, he's too far gone for you to catch up, even with your quick feet."

She sipped her coffee again, staring across the rim directly into Maiko.

"Are there any other complaints?"

"No… ma'am."

"Great, so we're in agreement. Ask permission before we borrow each other's toys, and fuck Ira Gamagoori. Fantastic. Back to work everyone, I want no more distractions before the Naturals Election next week."


	3. I Speed At Night

Chapter 3: I Speed At Night

_Ira trod slowly through the hulls of Honnouji, moving towards Ryuko's office. He'd seen the window lit up as he'd entered through the main gate, early to rise as always. But while his lady was also a morning person, she rarely turned up to her own school on time, citing more important matters that held her attention. And as her butler only accompanied her while she was in said office, it was unlikely that he was doing some early dusting. Thoughts of thieves and spies playing out, Ira gently opened the door, readying a whip._

_To his surprise, both Ryuko and her manservant were in. Equally surprising, the amount of paperwork coating her desk. She snapped to attention at the creak of the door, and in an instant Ira realised that she likely hadn't left since last night, if the dark circles under her eyes were anything to go by._

_"My apologises milady, I simply- "_

_"Shut up. Shut the hell up. Get your arse over here. I've got some questions for you."_

_He took a seat, watching as Ryuko went through sheet after sheet, before digging a pack out from under a mountain of her own creation. The blueprints for Honnouji Academy, and the secret functions hidden within. Traps for the Life Fibers and their thralls._

_"Did you know about this? You were with my sister from the beginning, did she say anything to you about this?"_

_Ira closed his eyes, took a deep breath. Wishing that Lady Satsuki could be here to justify herself to her sister in his stead. But for her own safety, she was miles away, unreachable by phone, e-mail, or even a carrier pigeon. And so he enacted his role in The Plan, and told Ryuko everything that she didn't want to hear._

* * *

Life Fibers danced on the wind, red strands fluttering through the bullet holes in balconies. Untroubled by collisions with raindrops they scattered, attempting to flee the field of battle and the bodies of those who had been clad in them not moments ago. Even in this, their simplest form, a modicum of intelligence remained: seek the mother, inform her of their injuries, cry foul that these lumbering, flesh-imprisoned souls had found a way to ruin the connection between them, fighting against their destiny as cattle.

An updraft of the wind was noted, a straight path leading home. But as they made to ride the current, a great howling began, rattling what little glass still sat in the window frames of the downtown apartments. All at once, the wind was thrown into sudden reverse, a cyclone that snatched the strands from the myriad directions they had split into and dragged them down to the level of the human waiting below. At his feet, an ugly block of steel roared with hellish vacuum, only silenced when each and every thread had vanished behind its cast-iron walls. Neon lights flickered from red to green, and Ira snapped a port shut, returning the device to the small of his back.

With the streets thoroughly cleansed, he made his way to the makeshift bunker he'd hidden the spy within. The dumpster creaked open, the fuzzy-headed boy flopping out and trying to understand where on earth he had ended up. At the sight of Ira, he scrambled to his feet, trying to assemble into a fighting stance; maybe that of a drunken boxer, if one were to be generous. The way his knees knocked together did away with any ideas of mastery.

"Easy, I'm not here to harm you. Rather, I'm the one who got you away from Maiko in the first place."

"Yeah, real nice of you, except you're still a Kiryuin pawn. Having Satsuki holding your leash hardly makes you a saint."

"Then let's take this from the other direction. You've just taken a beating from one of the Elite Four. Do you really think you can outrun me if I do mean you harm?"

The spy squinted through blackened eyes, swaying on the spot as a muddled mind tried to assess the mountain of metal standing in front of him.

"Fine. You don't mean me any harm. I guess you'll be helping me escape then?"

"We both need to skip town. I imagine you've been here for a while. Enough time to have an escape plan prepared for when the time came to leave with your stolen goods."

"Yeah, I got a place in the slums. Keep protecting me until we get there, and I'll see I can do to scratch your back in return. Sound fair?"

A giant gauntlet engulfed the smaller fist.

"Deal."

Not that there was much to protect him from as they made their way outwards. The Disciplinary Committee had abandoned the main roads, most likely so that they could shore up the defences on the sole entrance to the city. If any other clubs had been contracted, they kept their claws hidden as the pair entered the slums. Or rather, what was left of them.

No-Star students had never been a priority of Honnouji's mission. Those without the desire to better themselves, or the will to endure the whispers of cloth, had no place in the fight against the Life Fibers. So it was that their poverty would serve as motivation, their underclass status a target allowing One and Two-Star students to flex their powers against without the need for real combat. A cruel existence, but a necessary one, for when was life ever truly fair? But for all their listlessness, greed and unchecked crimes that had bubbled up in the absence of true law, the No-Stars had done nothing to earn the massacre that had visited them, the mad hellfire that had reduced Honnouji's lowest ring to ashes.

The bodies in the streets had long since been disposed of, but the buildings still spoke of what had happened here. Bricks torn apart like paperchains, roofs gutted by the flames. Not too far from him, the faint outline of a human silhouette, from where a poor soul had been thrown against the wall and ruptured on impact. Ira's trigger finger itched, the familiar pain that came whenever he dwelled on Ryuko Kiryuin dancing from scar to scar. She would pay for this. Even if he could not bring her down himself, he had delivered her destruction to her doorstep. These people would be avenged.

"Yeah, this area gets hit real hard by the Naturals Elections. Nothing of value to destroy, so you can rampage here all you like. Still, makes it easy to hide out. No-one bothers coming down here out of season. And it's not like the No-Stars have a reason to come back ever since Mankanshoku opened up the Safe Zone."

Lost in thoughts of the past, Ira completely missed the spy's departure and return. A scooter had been wheeled out of the least dilapidated building, and it was clearly not built for two.

"So, that's how it is."

"Like I'd trust anyone who works for any of the Kiryuins. Thanks for getting me down here though!"

It would have been simple to reach out and stop him from fleeing, but as the moped buzzed out of sight Ira found himself with no desire to stop it. The itching in his scars was becoming overpowering the longer he stood in this place, testing his resolve. The ever-tempting thought of kicking in the student council doors, disposing of Ryuko, and enacting the justice that he had failed to enforce. Foolish thoughts, that would only see him dead.

"My, my. What a morose look for a young man."

Ira snapped about, boltgun locked and ready. The target staring down the barrel couldn't have been less concerned, merely adjusting his glasses as his shirt fell open.

"Hey now, is that any way to say hello?"

**COMPLETELY NORMAL HISTORY TEACHER - AIKURO MIKISUGI**

"The manners of young people these days."

Ira holstered his weapon.

"Very well then. With all due respect, what exactly brings a member of Honnouji staff to this wasteland?"

"The same things that drew you in, more or less. But right now, I'm just an off-the-clock teacher, looking to help out a troubled former student. Come on, hop in."

Pulling keys from his breast pocket, the click of the lock summoned a sleek sports car, crashing through the debris of a former home to roll up before them. Ignoring his mother's warnings about getting into cars with strangers, Ira took the passenger seat. No sooner then he'd managed to strain the seatbelt over his armoured chest, the Naked Shooting Star had roared into life, heading towards freedom. Ira could have sworn the car had lost another two inches from the ground clearance when he got in, as the ride was undeniably rough, but nevertheless…

"This is a pretty nice car you have here."

There was a short chuckle from the teacher.

"Not exactly what I was expecting to hear, but thank you. I suppose trekking around with the lost Kiryuin ill affords comforts such as this?"

Ira grunted in confirmation.

"Still, I have to ask. Why offer me assistance? We did not part with Nudist Beach on the kindest of terms last time we were in Osaka."

"Kid, if Nudist Beach took each other to terms every time we disagreed with our own methods, we'd never get anything done. You're the enemy of my enemy, and that's good enough for me."

Aikuro smiled as they turned to see the checkpoint set up by the Disciplinary Committee. Beyond it lay the miles of open roads, free from the blood-soaked touch of Ryuko Kiryuin. That said, with only one way out by vehicle, and with the very notable personage of himself in the passenger seat, Ira could see no possible way to get through without alerting the guards.

The boltgun was jammed into Aikuro's side, the bastard actually having the audacity to look surprised as Ira glared at him.

"So, that's your plan. Hand me over at the checkpoint to curry favour with Ryuko is it?"

The teacher wheezed out a pained breath, slowing down as the traffic lanes drew into single-file.

"My my, we're awfully paranoid, aren't we?"

Three trucks before them, another one behind to box them in. It must have been time for Honnouji to stock up on Life Fibers. Still, that left three chances for the undercover agent to change his mind. And it looked like he was already taking the first one.

"Mr Gamagoori, why on earth would I call unnecessary attention to myself by appearing before Ryuko? It'd just put me on her radar."

"Ryuko Kiryuin cares about Ryuko Kiryuin and no-one else. If she didn't, I'd still be in her Elites. You'll hand me over, receive a token present, and she'll think nothing more of the matter."

Two trucks to go. The boltgun pressed tighter. Aikuro grinned into the pain.

"Come on kid, what did I just tell you? Even if our more extremist members object to involving the renegade Kiryuin and your group in their more detailed plans, it does not change the fact that we fight the same enemy. Revealing the wild card so early is simply not how the game is played."

One truck to go. Disciplinary students swarmed the area, waving it through. Ira grit his teeth. Now or never. They were disguised behind reflective glass, but would that be enough to camouflage his escape, even assuming the Nudist could be trusted?

"Hey, get a move on!"

And the choice was made for him, The Naked Shooting Star rolling forwards to stop before the barrier. Aikuro brought one hand up to his lapel as the window rolled down, Ira shifting his weapon to keep it out of sight, now pressing it on the driver's leg. Aikuro got one last sentence in as one of Maiko's goons marched up to the window.

"You may wish to avert your eyes."

The One-Star poked his head in to check the pair, only to be greeted by a purple glow as the buttons on Aikuro's shirt erupted open in a flurry of cloth, his nipples lighting up the checkpoint. Even sitting behind him, Ira was awash with alluring light.

"You don't need to see our identification."

"I don't need to see your identification."

Behind the bowl-cut fringe, the student's eyes had gone glassy and dull, his words slightly slurred.

"You're going to let us through now."

"I'm going to let you through now."

"You'll think no more on this matter."

"I'll think no more on this matter."

He wandered back to his station on shaky legs, ignoring the call from one of his peers as he opened the barrier leading out to the main road. It had barely crept up an inch before Aikuro slammed his foot into the floor, the Naked Shooting Star roared into life as it slipped under. Before Ira could ask what on earth was happening, the world was filled with the twin cacophonies of engines and sirens as the Disciplinary Committee and their allies immediately took chase. Aikuro gave a weak smile.

"Well, that worked out better than I thought it would. Although, to be honest, it was the same plan either which way."

"So, that light show was…"

"A nice trick, nothing more."

The wing mirror on his side exploded as they pulled out onto the main motorway, gunfire impacting the car from behind as a villainous convoy took to the roads, raring for blood. Ira checked his boltgun, giving the seatbelt release from its torment as he readied himself for battle. Gingerly winding down the window, he made to cover them with sidearm fire. Unfortunately, the model of the car had not been considered for gentlemen in powered armour. It was all he could do to squeeze his arm out, popping off a few ineffectual shots in return. All around, bullets bounced and impacted off the trunk and back window of the car. Trying to shift his bulk around in the confined space, Ira searched for the identity of his attackers, to no avail. The shapeless mass of machinery responded in kind by shooting harder.

"Damn, I can't see a thing."

"It's likely the Automotive Airsoft Club. Ever since they combined into one club, they've been the only ones with this kind of speed and firepower. Still, we should be fine. This baby's been modified to Nudist standards, so we'll be able to ride this out in no time."

An explosive round whistled down the highway, the rear of the car promptly exploding into flame. Aikuro fought for control, managing to save them from dovetailing into a side barrier. And with damage already sustained, it was time to see what else they could fob off on the insurance.

"Sorry about this, I'll pay you back when I can."

"Sorry about whaaaaat?"

Aikuro's question ended in a high-pitched squeal as Ira put his fist through the ceiling. With a second hit, he created enough room to stand on the passenger's seat, peeling the roof up the create a shield to rest his boltgun on as the Automotive Airsoft Club made up the distance to surround the Naked Shooting Star. Single fire rounds immediately took out the three trying to shred the rear wheels, encouraging the remaining members to focus their fire upon him as Aikuro blinded a fourth with a shining nipple, sending the student careening into the side of the road. But the club was like a hydra, every custom car replaced by another in no time at all, even as Ira's shots tore their ranks and the road to pieces. A harsh laugh somehow rose above the unholy calamity in time with a super-charged engine roar.

* * *

Late afternoon was an awful time to be driving. Despite the many, many driving songs proclaiming the romanticised view of the easy afternoon drive, it was just a pain in the arse of any self-respecting driver. The sun forced its way into your eyes by any means it could, bugs would smash themselves against your windscreen, and god help you if your air conditioning broke down. And that was just in a car. As such, the only thing comforting The Spy From Osaka was that his mission was as good as complete, as he spat out another fly onto the tarmac. His fake identification had got him clean past the Disciplinary Committee, and now he was more or less home free. That said, if he had spent less time focusing on flies and the heat, he might have noticed the noise rushing up the motorway behind him. That said, it's not like it would have changed much either way, as the spy suddenly found himself forcibly bound between a pair of Automotive Airsoft Club members, the scooter brought alongside the Club President in chains.

"Well, look what we have here! Do you really think you can escape the Automotive Airsoft in that wreck? It was a pretty thing, I'll give you that, but she ain't nothing if she can't last the night! And we've bagged ourselves the thief as well! Lady Kiryuin's got to approve our extra funding now!"

**AUTOMOTIVE AIRSOFT CLUB PRESIDENT – RYOSUKE TODOROKI**

The new lieutenants of Honnouji continued to meet Ira's expectations for the kind of degenerates that would work under the madwoman. Every vehicle around him was nothing short of hideous in its design, snarling beasts designed only for power with no thought or soul put into it. The Club President had fused himself into his car as part of his Goku Uniform, for God's sake! It was as if a junkyard had been risen up on wheels and force fed nothing but nitrous oxide and firearms. That said, there was a small note of amusement to be had at the situation to be had.

"I don't want to say I told you so, but maybe continued co-operation might have been in your best interest!"

The spy shouted a muffled curse through his bindings.

"It's good to see you too."

Ryosuke interrupted the unexpected reunion with another harsh laugh.

"Well, ain't this cute. We'll have to cut this short, but you two can get all cosy in the dungeons back at Honnouji. Light them up boys!"

"Just one moment, if you would!"

The remains of the Naked Shooting Star's trunk opened up to reveal a heavy-set speaker system. A quick glance down showed that Aikuro had stripped down his disguise completely, although he had thankfully kept his underwear on as he spoke into a microphone, his voice sounding from out the trunk. Ryosuke was less than impressed.

"What the hell do you what, mystery asshole?"

"Well, as much as I'd like to avoid any more violence today, I can't help noticing you were smack-talking my car. You see, she's more than just a pretty face, unlike that monstrosity you've rammed yourself into."

Ryosuke's wheels wobbled, and Ira caught a glimpse of something slick coating the road behind them. Remnants of the rain?

"Our cars might not be the prettiest girls, but at least they'll keep going and going until they get the job done. Just look at your junker old man, it's not been five miles, and she's already on her last legs! And don't even get me started on this loser with his scooter!"

"But that's wrong!"

The club's laughter was extinguished in a second by righteous fury. It seemed for all the world that Ira had grown to twice his size as he loomed over the other drivers, arms folded and his face set in a familiar scowl.

"Clear your ears out and pay attention, members of the Automotive Airsoft Club! A man's car is nothing less than his soul! A culmination of an eighteen-year dream born from infancy! A dream built from the desires to help yourself and others with easy transport and independence! It demands nothing less than every inch of passion in his heart to master the wheel, to attend to every need you didn't even know it could spring on you! To simply beg power from your engines is to create a mockery of that dream! To form such ugly designs of bodywork is an insult to every man on the planet! When we are finished with you, you should beg to the scrap metal left over for being nothing less than complete failures to your vehicles!"

"Well spoken, Mr Gamagoori! And to that end, I must ask, who here is familiar with the adventures of 007?"

Silence reigned from the students, although whether it was from Ira's lambasting or lack of understanding the teacher's reference would be lost to the ages. Nevertheless, Aikuro continued.

"Well then, this should be completely new to you. Naked Shooting Star, anti-capture method, go!"

Aikuro jerked the wheel sideways as the faint slick on the ground turned into a torrent, black liquid shining in rainbow brilliance as the Naked Shooting Star began to spin like a top on its own sprayed-out oil, coating the Automotive Airsoft Club from every angle and immediately throwing half their numbers from the road, the impact of two of them launching the Spy from Osaka clear into the air, far from the grasp of either party. Before Ira could alert him, Aikuro's beloved car had whipped around to face their opponents, flying in reverse as it launched a grappling claw from the front bumper, pulling the dizzied spy right into Ira's outstretched hand as the car righted its course once again. He was quickly stuffed away as Ryosuke cried out in vengeance, the club's cars spawning chains onto their wheels to get back into the fray.

"You think you're the only one with tricks? Automotive Airsoft Club! Tsunami Formation!"

Chains sprang out from every car, linking and joining them around their leader and across the entire span of the road as two new vehicles fitted with massive turbine engines locked on at the very back, the formation quickly making up the lost ground with an almighty roar and blinding flames. Within seconds, it was ramming the back of the Naked Shooting Star, a red aura shielding them from Ira's attempts to blast away the front ranks. As he regretted not bringing along his heavier artillery, Ryosuke began his taunts again.

"You see this, Ira Gamagoori? Cause we're not even getting started yet!"

Sparks became fires under each and every car as they slowly rose into the air, curling over the Naked Shooting Star and threatening to crush them beneath the twisted metal as every member began firing down on them once more, Ira shielding the spy from harm as Aikuro forced every horse out of the engine, foot planted firmly to the floor.

"Alright, I guess it's time to use 'that' then!"

"Use what?"

The answer came in the form of the roof stripping away completely, the space where the back seats should have been opening up to reveal a heavy-duty missile battery. Ira didn't need telling twice as he grabbed the reins of the weapon, aiming into the heart of the formation at the club president, who had just enough time to curse before the entire formation was turned into a raging fireball. The heat was upon them for mere seconds, the Naked Shooting Star bursting free from the firestorm in a smoking husk of its former glory, spinning wildly in the air until it came down like a skipping stone, bouncing once, twice, three times on the tarmac and launching off the motorway.

* * *

The cleaning was finally completed, which Satsuki was currently defining as 'we can sit down on something that isn't a dead Life Fiber now.' In other words, not even close to a completed job. All the rags had folded up and placed into the corner where Nonon and her pet monkey were currently staring off into space. Honestly, you'd think the girl had never been forced to sleep rough before. Still, Satsuki's attempts to convince her companion of necessary sacrifices would have to wait as a great crash of wailing metal shook the makeshift base of operations, instantly pulling Nonon out of her shock as both girls drew weapons.

"You think it's REVOCS?"

"Unlikely. No-one should know we're here. Even if the worst-case scenario happened with Ira, he would not betray our location."

"So then what the hell was that?"

Satsuki instantly regretted not setting up a surveillance network before making the place liveable. A sloppy mistake that now left them vulnerable. She bit down on her lip.

"I'll make my way up and investigate. Stay down here for the time being, I will rectify my mistake."

Nonon gave a double-blink of confusion.

"Mistake, what mis- hey, wait up!"

Satsuki was already headed to the surface, Bakuzan-Prime in hand. The stairs led to a second trap door outside the mansion, not that there was much left of it. The ruins had been brought down completely by a burning wreck of twisted metal, three figures standing before it with hands clasped together in reverence and respect. And like that, the danger had passed, although Satsuki would have more than a few questions for the three.

"So, I trust the scouting mission went as well as expected."

Ira Gamagoori unlocked his gauntleted fingers and turned to her, the boy in chains and the man dressed in nought but his underwear following suit.

"It has been quite the afternoon my lady. I will explain everything at your earliest convenience."

"Starting by explaining why you, a member of Nudist Beach and a Honnouji student are praying to what I assume to be the remains of a car, I trust?"

"As he said, Miss Kiryuin, it's has been quite the afternoon."

**NUDIST BEACH SPLENDID NAKED OFFICER – AIKURO MIKISUKI**


	4. Yesterday

Chapter 4: Yesterday 

**TWO YEARS AGO – HONNOUJI ACADEMY**

_"So, you're taking off?"_

_"I have to. My work is completed here. The academy is built and staffed, just as mother requested. By my estimates, REVOCS' adolescent focused product lines will meet the projected profits within about six months. The new Goku Uniforms will receive a thorough test bed ready for release as soon as mother approves of them going out into the general public. Something to keep the shareholders happy, I'm sure."_

_Ryuko's designer trainers squeaked awkwardly against the pavement as she searched for the right words. But Satsuki was the smart one, not her. The one who should have been getting ready to lord over the pigs in human clothing, not her. As far as Ryuko was concerned, shareholders were there to voice worthless opinions and hand the company money, not to tell a Kiryuin what her place in the world was or hold them to account._

_"Well, you know… I'm sure mum will take notice now. I mean… she's got to, right?"_

_This had originally been Ryuko's project, but it had become apparent pretty quickly that she was in over her head. And so, she'd gone crawling to Satsuki for help, despite the four of so other projects her sister was currently managing. The turnover in productivity had been greater than anything the younger sister could have dreamed of, and yet, not a single word of praise had come down the pipeline. Even Nui, psychotic little ball of energy that she was, tended to get more affection than the eldest Kiryuin child. Ryuko continued, unsure if her attempts could clear the frown from Satsuki's face._

_"Hell, I bet the first thing she does is move you onto some bigger job in the company, so you can gain more experience and stuff, instead of just being some empty-headed twit who's got good grades but nothing to back it up, and no spine for hazing."_

_Satsuki's stoic face cracked, just a little. On the elder sister, it might as well have been a toothy grin. The number of suited sycophants, preening egoists and would-have-been REVOCS executives that had tried to overthrow the pair for their positions in the company was a list as lengthy as the day was long. The last gentleman to insist Ryuko held her place purely by nepotism had been forced to flee the country, thumbtacks leaking out of his shoes all the way._

_"I'm sure she'll do just that."_

_A car had been scheduled to pick her up, but Satsuki would be making the best effort to avoid getting into it. As such, her phone rang, and she answered the silence on the other end._

_"Satsuki Kiryuin. Yes? Of course, I'll be there shortly."_

_She turned back to Ryuko, a nod to Soroi as he pocketed the other phone behind her back._

_"It seems the pick-up point has been rearranged due to traffic. I'll be walking down to meet my ride."_

_"Right, sure."_

_Ryuko bit down on her tongue, trying not to cry in front of her sister. It would be an unworthy display for a Kiryuin to make, even in spite of her circumstances. But still, she was being left to run an entire academy by herself, and she'd barely been able to assemble it alone. Well, not completely by herself. Her elder sister had seen fit to appoint three boys she'd never met before to be her assistants and elite guard. Apparently they were all on the level, having been vetted by Satsuki herself, but they were still strangers as far as Ryuko was concerned. Sanageyama seemed to be cool, at the very least. He'd already agreed to a kendo match with her, which might be fun. According to Satsuki, he had a lot of potential for a human. Fuck the other two though; the combination of the data freak and the giant with the stick up his arse was likely to drive her nuts in no time. She put this out her mind for the time being, holding out her arms for a hug, a gap Satsuki gladly filled._

_"Alright, try to not start too many fights in my absence and be good for Soroi. I'll be back to check in as soon as I can."_

_Ryuko nodded mutely into Satsuki's chest, signalling an end to the inevitable. With a long breath she pulled away, tearing the bandage away from her heart. Maybe it wouldn't be so long. Maybe mother would be unable to find a job that only Satsuki could solve. Unlikely. No matter the task, her big sister seemed to thrive under pressure._

_"I'll see you soon."_

_"Of course. Keep an eye her for me, will you Soroi?"_

_"It will be my honour, Lady Satsuki."_

_And with that, the goodbyes were finished. A light peck on her sister's forehead and Satsuki was on her way, Bakuzan rubbing against her suitcase keeping time with the click of high heels as she faded into the thrum of midday Tokyo and out of Ryuko's memories._

* * *

**ESTATE OF RYUKO KIRYUIN – PRESENT DAY**

**TWO DAYS UNTIL THE NATURALS ELECTION**

To anyone who knew of her, it would likely be quite the surprise that Ryuko Kiryuin was an early bird. Most would have fingered her for the type to stay in as long as possible, forced into the waking world by a flurry of snatched blankets or a bucket of water. But each and every dawn she would awake bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, for the Life Fibers were calling to her. Each beat of her heart called her to the rear of her home, every cell in her body begging to greet the morning rays. She knew this, and accepted it. Life Fibers were creatures that lived on the energy of others, and so it made perfect sense for them to want to feed on the sun's arrival. It was almost a ritual for her. Go to the back of the house, park herself on the wooden bench, spread her limbs and embrace the dawn in her full morning glory. Breakfast for the soul. In time, when the sunlight was less fulfilling and more irritating, she would retreat back to the house to shower and bind herself to Junketsu, retrieving him from his solemn watch at her bedside.

_"Were you having a pleasant dream?"_

His scratchy, mechanical voice resonated in her chest and mind, a voice only she could speak with.

"I suppose. More of a memory. The day Satsuki left."

_"Ah, we see."_

He didn't, but bless his non-existent heart for trying. Life Fibers had no concept of "family" or "loved ones". You were a Life Fiber, or you were food. Held together by their primordial mother until it was time to feed, they had no need for individual voices, only the collective mind. It was nice, but not a mind-set Ryuko could prescribe to. She much preferred being a singular entity. Junketsu was company enough in her mind, the ambassador between the two species created by her father before his untimely death. Thought a mindless beast by the pigs that had sealed him away, she had proven that the two could co-exist. For a time anyway, the Life Fibers were still going to eat the Earth regardless. And that was fine. Just the natural way of things. Perfectly natural. Completely ordinary. The strong ate the weak and survived. One of those things you had to see the big picture to understand, who know? The universe was going to devour itself one day, so what did it matter if a planet or two went missing along the way? The truth of reality really helped you seize the day. Speaking of which…

"Is she up yet?"

_"Of course not."_

And now for part two of her morning rituals, getting her girlfriend up. Mako Mankanshoku laid tangled up in the remaining covers, drooling and snoring the morning away. Once the cotton mounds had been gently unwound, Ryuko leant over and slipped an errant string into her ear. That got her up sharpish, albeit incredibly confused as she rose from the remnants of her unconscious prison. Junketsu snorted.

_"We still don't understand why she gets your blood running so."_

_"And you never will Jun."_

_"Wonderful. Very well then, second question."_

_"More? Aren't we curious this morning?"_

_"Your paramour left that "romantic" movie running last night. As such, we've decided to question you on the nature of human relationships based on our continuous observations over the past solar cycle."_

_"Why the hell do you care all of a sudden?"_

_"Ryuko, be kind. You are not exactly one for companionship. You have actively distained from it in the past. We simply wish to note what has changed. You know that the subtleties of human emotion are lost on us."_

Breakfast was already awaiting the pair as they made their way into the heart of the mansion. Soroi did all of his best work out of sight.

_"What changed was finding a couple of people who actually give a damn. She just happened to be the first one."_

_"Hence where last night's entertainment comes in. Considering the fact that the human known as Mako Mankanshoku has the unique ability to control the way your blood quickens and calms, and considering your obvious desires, why have you not procreated with her yet?"_

Ryuko choked on her coffee, causing the subject of one of the two conversations she was having to stop the other one and pet her back until she'd regained control of her lungs.

_"Jesus Christ Jun, you nearly gave me a heart attack!"_

_"It's a perfectly reasonable request."_

_"Okay, first off, when it's two girls, it ain't "procreating", it's fucking."_

_"Fine, why are you not fucking with her yet?"_

_"Because."_

_"Because?"_

_"Because it's none of your business, that's why."_

_"Nonsense. We are two creatures in one body, everything that is your business becomes ours, and vice versa."_

"Ryuko, it's time to go!"

And so Ryuko dodged a bullet as Junketsu was transformed into his more natural form, albeit at the cost of Ryuko's pockets. Any follow-up questions were filtered straight out as they flew to the academy on rocket jets.

* * *

The kendo stick whipped across Maiko's chest as she punished the disgraced Three-Star, sending a spray of blood from fresh wounds and opening up old scars with each strike. Two of the Elites kept their hands folded behind their backs, looking on stoically as Ryuko broke the weapon over Maiko's head, screaming a list of failures and getting a choir of excuses in return. Two clubs lost and the disciplinary students mobilised in force, with nothing to show for it. Mako's eyes were on the ground as Ryuko stomped back over to her throne, throwing the shattered hilt square at the Disciplinary Chair by way of a final punishment.

"Inumuta, tell me you traced the fucking licence plate."

Ira Gamagoori had destroyed the Automotive Airsoft Club and escaped with the uniform thief thanks to some mystery arsehole and his sweet ride. Which, understandably, had ruined Ryuko's good mood. The data loving bastard adjusted his glasses in a move scientifically calculated to make her want to punch his stupid face.

"We have, but you won't be pleased with the results." He said, handing over a slip of paper. Ryuko scanned it quickly.

"So, we're looking for a Drew P. Wiener."

Once she was done giving Houka enough bruising to match his fellow Elite, she sent the pair downstairs to patch up their wounds, and forced Uzu to escort them to get a little more private time with Mako. Selfish? Yes, but like hell she cared. Uncalled for? Well, she was getting a gentle reprehend as she squeezed the girl like an oversized teddy bear.

"Ryuko, don't you think that was kind of mean?"

"They'll live. Ogure's always planning to bump me off anyway, so it's not like she needed another excuse."

"But… they're our friends. Even if Inumuta never gets off his laptop or goes outside, and even though you and Ogure are always yelling at each other, they still help us run the school, right?"

There was a shot of pure silence, followed by a groan as Ryuko did her best to avoid rolling her eyes into the back of her head.

"Fine, fine. Go down to that little bakery Ogure doesn't think we know about and get her some of those weird cakes she likes. As for the dog… I dunno, get him a picture of a motherboard or something, see if I care. And don't tell them I had anything to do with this."

Mako popped off her position on Ryuko's knee, a sunny smile on her face as she saluted.

"Aye-aye Ryuko!"

And with a farewell kiss on her girlfriend's nose, she bounced out the room, leaving Ryuko to slouch in the darkness of the student council chambers, imagining traitors lined up on their knees before the throne.

* * *

"And that's the rundown of everything that's happened since your departure. Once a month, the entirety of Honnouji and the greater Tokyo area lose their minds and battle to the death for Ryuko's pleasure. Even if one doesn't make it into the Elite Four, the rewards for just making it into the Sudden Death Runoff are enough of an incentive to participate. A fair few ten-thousand yen of an incentive, if you catch my drift. A couple of our operatives have been disguising themselves as students and skimming the Kiryuin bank accounts for a good few months now. It makes for excellent funding."

Aikuro's pointer snapped against the remnants of Dr Matoi's old whiteboard, where he'd spent most of the morning detailing Ryuko's reign over Honnouji. The system was mostly running to plan, with the exception of the monthly bloodbaths. Things could still be salvaged and turned against REVOCS, if they took back the academy in the next Naturals Election. Satsuki sipped her tea, noting with some displeasure that only she and Ira were the only ones in the small collective to have even touched their cups. One cup had even been left to steam alone, the Osakan spy having fled back to his master in the Takaradas after some helpful advice from Satsuki about how to avoid the disciplinary forces (a thirty mile walk north to find the only train station that wouldn't be monitored so he take a train that would need to change twice before his destination, a trip that would be over in no time with a little resolve). Nonon and Aikuro appeared to have forgotten theirs entirely. Such a waste. Ira lent forward, the makeshift table creaking under his weight.

"The spy mentioned something about a safe zone. Do you have any information on that?"

Aikuro flicked his luscious hair backwards in a completely pointless manoeuvre. Nonon wisely chose to shuffle closer to Satsuki as the room was bathed in purple.

"Mako Mankanshoku!"

"Who?"

Aikuro withdrew a picture from behind his back and tossed it over to the trio. A plain looking girl in a Three-Star uniform was shown directing students about, a smile on her face in spite of the desolation around her.

"A mystery wrapped in a puzzle bound in an enigma. She appeared from nowhere about a year or so ago, taking on non-athletic clubs that had previously been under Uzu Sanageyama. Stranger still was the fact she has never been seen in the Naturals Elections before or after, causing many to call Ryuko out on her inclusion in the elites. To this day, she has yet to answer the accusations."

Ira took up the picture, the photo tiny between his fingertips.

"She must have been brought on after Ryuko expelled me, I can't remember seeing her before."

"That's the thing; no-one seems to have known her before she put on a Goku uniform. Stranger still is the knock-on effect from her inclusion in the ranks of the student council, which is where the Safe Zone comes in. Mr Gamagoori, you remember the state of things at the time of your expulsion?"

"More or less the same as they are now. Rampant bloodshed and needless deaths to entertain Ryuko's whims. It's a miracle that anyone lives here at all."

"Actually, since your departure, the number of deaths in the Naturals Elections has halved."

"What!"

Ira made to shake the room in his surprise, stilled only by Satsuki's hand on his wrist.

"And this girl, Mankanshoku, is responsible?"

"The Safe Zone was built and remained via the allowance Ryuko hands down to her Elites. The slums facing the open sea were repurposed into what can be called the new No-Star housing area. Each Naturals Election, students of all ranks can have their loved ones placed within the walls to protect them from the fighting, or take shelter themselves."

Satsuki took a sip of her tea, prompting Ira to drain his cup in one sudden movement. As the Toad's tongue would be curling up on itself from the next minute or so, Nonon took his place in the discussion.

"Okay, but if all the students are fighting for positions and a cut of the Kiryuin coffers, who the hell looks after the place? It can't be that safe."

"Not all students seek the high ranks miss Jakuzure. Surprisingly, this place does still manage to operate as a school from time to time. The Safe Zone is managed by volunteers, about a couple hundred members of the student body of varying Star levels. Before that, Mankanshoku held the line single-handedly. Which isn't the surprising thing, considering she's a Three-Star. No, what continues to surprise the student body is that not one person who has assaulted the Safe Zone has died by her hands."

* * *

"Hey guys!"

Two pairs of bespectacled eyes glared at her as she entered the room. Uzu must have still been full of morphine, because he just kept staring at the ceiling. Mako wouldn't bother him, as he looked like he was in a happier place right now, and she had two others to help.

"What, she send you down to make me feel worse?"

Maiko's glare was promptly wiped away in surprise by the box stuffed into her arms, Mako beaming all the while.

"Ryuko wants to let you know she's sorry, but don't let her know I told you that, okay?"

Maiko opened her mouth to retort, closed it, opened it again and decided her time would be better spent eating a pastry. With her sweet tooth easing her wounds, she shook the box towards Houka, who accepted a dessert with a sigh, which was good. Maiko liked Houka, even if Houka didn't know about it. Boys could be silly like that sometimes, so Mako did everything in her power to help them get along. She didn't know too much about computers, so she produced the magazines she'd found in the shop next to the bakery. They all looked techy and junk, so he'd probably like them. But it looked like his arms were still sore from Ryuko getting upset, as he couldn't even take them from her! Luckily, there was a table in the student council medical bay for her to set them down on.

"Hey, nothing for me?"

Oh, Uzu was back from la-la land.

"Sorry Sanageyama, I'll get you something next time! Like ice cream!"

The swordsman chuckled, tussling her bob-cut.

"Ah, don't worry about it; I'm sure Ryuko will give me another rematch as soon as I'm patched up."

And with that he headed towards the door, only to stop as Mako caught his sleeve.

"Sanageyama, please try not to fight with Ryuko as much. I know you two are always having fun, but it isn't fun when you get hurt so badly, you know?"

There was another chuckle as he loosened her hand.

"Don't worry too much about it; I'm tougher than I look. Besides, I think Ryuko'll give me some time off if the Espionage Society fail to find Gamagoori. Anyway, I'll you guys later."

And with that, he was off, leaving Mako sighing in the doorway. Ira Gamagoori. Ryuko had spent the better part of last night throwing darts at a picture of his face, but Mako remembered the previous committee chair fondly. He had been strict, but fair, like an old mentor in a samurai film, the kind that ended up dying to inspire the hero to do justice. Wait… if that had been Gamagoori's job, and now Maiko had his job…

"Ogure, please don't die! No-one needs inspiring that badly, even if things have been a little down lately!"

"What."

* * *

"Well, it's getting late, I'd better be heading back before someone notices I'm missing for too long."

"Surely you've been missed for today, considering you didn't even bother to call in sick."

Aikuro chuckled as he ran a hand through now shaggy locks. He'd able to nick some of Dr Matoi's old shirts and trousers with the intent of hitchhiking his way back to Honnouji. He leant in closer to Nonon then she would have liked, the borrowed shirt already splitting apart again.

"Thank you for the concern Miss Jakuzure, but truth be told, my attendance record is so poor that one more day off isn't going to kill me. Ryuko doesn't exactly check the books."

He leant in to kiss her hand, stopped by the robotic hiss of Marika from her master's shoulder, aping her master's feelings towards the faux-teacher. The complaint was quickly laughed off.

"Worth a shot. Well then, here's to continued co-operation."

Satsuki similarly avoided the attempted kiss, pushing Aikuro back with one finger.

"Quite. We'll be looking into the affairs of this Mankanshoku for the time being. Thank you for the information. We look forward to continued exchanges."

And with that stilted farewell, Aikuro Mikisugi made his way into the dust of the highway, the trio of Life Fiber Hunters returning to their temporary abode. Satsuki broke the silence first.

"Nonon, I trust that you've tracked the spy so far?"

From the impossible space of her cat suit, Nonon pulled out a tablet more suited to commuter travelling than freedom fighting, tracing a few swipes over the screen.

"Vital signs say he's passed out. You sure he won't remember this place or us?"

"I laced his drink appropriately. It is a necessary skill."

As with most days, Nonon found herself very happy to not be Satsuki's enemy any more. The Toad nodded understandingly, his obnoxious armour rattling with the motion.

"That would explain his grimace when he sipped his tea. There must have been a lingering taste."

Over at the table, Satsuki frowned, and Nonon prayed to various deities that she wouldn't follow that train of thought and discover that the tea she was so proud of was bitterer than an old maid on Valentine's Day. On the other hand, maybe she'd stop making it five times a day, which would only be a good thing.

"Nonon, you haven't touched your cup."

The silence returned with a vengeance as Nonon searched for a decent lie.

"Err… I must have forgotten about it while we were getting caught up. I mean, that guy certainly liked the sound of his own voice, you know?"

One didn't make it through a lifetime of dog-eat-dog, high-handed schooling without learning to keep secrets from other girls, especially the ones that might cause them to cry. Satsuki seemed to accept the answer, draining the cup herself. Gods only knew how bad it must have been served cold, and yet she didn't even blink as she brought the emptied cups together.

"Very well, I'll simply make a second whilst we review the plan of action for this afternoon."

In what might have been the fastest example of karmic retribution Nonon had ever seen, Satsuki gathered up the tea making equipment and headed for the lake, leaving her assistant rubbing her temples in her wake.


	5. Suffragette City

Chapter 5: Suffragette City

Ira Gamagoori was troubled. Even if Satsuki hadn't been traveling with the man for almost a year now, she would have easily picked up on his distress by the way the work bench vibrated each time he took a step in his endless pacing. Attempting to let him resolve his issue alone and write between the tremors had done little to save her design documents from dissolving into an uneven scrawl. Sparing the shoddy penmanship a frown, she turned in her chair to face her long-time companion as he began another round of pacing.

"Ira."

The lines on his forehead snapped away instantly as he snapped to attention.

"Y-yes My Lady? I'm sorry, was I disturbing you?"

Well, yes, but there was a more pressing issue before that.

"Ira, my name."

He slapped a broad hand to his face.

"Right, of course. Yes, Lady Satsuki?"

One of these days he'd come around to the idea that they were equals (and friends, no less) in the battle against Life Fibers and use her name without honorifics as she did his. It seemed today was not that day, but Satsuki let it drop for the time being.

"Something is bothering you. Have you grown so used to Nonon's presence that her absence disturbs you so?"

Maybe one day she'd learn how to tell a joke. As it was, Ira took two more steps before gravely sinking into a rickety chair as gingerly as his mass would allow him, one leg each side with the back of the chair facing her.

"Sending her into enemy territory alone is a risky move, but Nonon has proven herself to be more than capable in the past."

His head sagged onto folded arms, staring at the floor.

"No, something else is bothering me. I mean no offence Lady Satsuki, but… Ryuko Kiryuin."

Ah, so that was it. Satsuki waited as the man gathered his words. Each time he spoke her sister's name it came out more venomous than the last.

"Ryuko Kiryuin, slacker extraordinaire. Ryuko Kiryuin, a girl who took what was supposed be a fortress for humanity and turned it into a den of Life Fibers. Ryuko Kiryuin, who sets students of all ages against each other for blood sport, and when even that depravity was not enough, enacted a one-women massacre against those who could not defend themselves from her wrath. Ryuko Kiryuin, who flayed my back and cast me out without a stitch of clothing for the crime of demanding she stop. Ryuko Kiryuin, a psychotic, murderous, foul-mouthed savage with no regards for anyone other than herself and her own pleasure… and I'm supposed to believe this girl now allows a place of safety away from the fires of her own madness within her own walls, all thanks to some former No-Star girl that we have had no intel regarding until yesterday?"

Satsuki had no words of comfort. She had not heard one herself since her father had passed away thirteen years ago. Even if she knew some, she had purged any softness from herself when he had left her life. Any act of physical empathy would be hollow and meaningless, an empty gesture in the face of her mistakes. And every other thought that reached her lips died there in a rare moment of remorse.

"I would offer my apologies if you would take them. Had I known Ryuko…"

She trailed off, not shameless enough to present that lie as an oversight. She had known the second that she'd walked away from Honnouji that Ryuko's moods would only be influenced for the worse by her mother and Nui. She'd prayed that the position of responsibility and the three confidents of a like-minded friend, an authority figure and someone to shoulder the difficult technical work would ease her sister into becoming her own person. She returned to find a tyrant upon the throne of Honnouji, and she was entirely to blame. The easier path had been taken for fear of losing everything to the enemy, and while the end of the world grew ever-closer, she had handed REVOCS yet another powerful piece to play. Her year of exile had barely been of use to her plans, and the time to save the world grew shorter with each company and country REVOCS brought up and dressed in its colours.

Satsuki bit down her lip, drawing blood. Thoughts like these would do no good to her or humanity's prospects. She rose from her seat, the lamp on her work bench brightening a little.

"Ira, I cannot take back my mistakes. But I swear to you I shall amend them. Honnouji can still be brought back to its true path. We can still save the world. And if I must cut down my own sister to do so, I will."

* * *

**HONNO CITY SAFE ZONE**

**TWO DAYS UNTIL THE NATURALS ELECTION**

It was early afternoon, which meant Saturday lessons had finished for the day and the streets were filled with students of every rank of stars. Given the Toad's doomsday warnings about the horrors of Honnouji Academy, Nonon had half expected to find bodies piled up in the streets and the people tearing the flesh from each other's bones. And whilst it seemed the people here were on edge, keeping eyes on their fellow man as if expecting a fight to break out at any time, this was nowhere near as bad as the slums she'd been forced to walk through to get here.

Nonon suppressed a shudder from behind her menu of cheap coffees. The records of destruction and the lingering smell of blood and fire imprinted on every faded ruin had been one thing, but it had been the absolute silence for a mile on end that had quickened her feet with every step here. At least making it past the entrance had been easy enough, ushered through by the kindly looking girl on the door the second she'd mentioned that she was seeking sanctuary – no doubt one of Mako's policies. The simple disguise of a black wig and contacts combined with some of her older clothes was serving her well, and for the first time in half a year, she was almost feeling… normal.

As if she hadn't run away with the enemy of everything she'd be taught to love.

As if she hadn't been part of raids on textile factories and shipping depots.

As if she hadn't fought Nudists back and forth all across Osaka.

As if she hadn't been forced to make like a bear in the woods more times than she would have liked.

It wouldn't last, but for now she'd enjoy a little civilisation for once, feeling the hum of Marika's engine within her beret. She did have a reason for wasting time, anyway. Hanging around housewives and other teenagers had greased the rumour mill up to full speed, and rumours almost always had a hint of truth to them. But that was mere speculation, a possible weakness that she'd need Satsuki to weigh in on to see if they could utilise it in the coming battles. In actual information, she'd brought up a bumper crop. Apparently, Mako was coming down personally this afternoon to bring in supplies for all the poor people, and the folks here liked to roll out the red carpet when she did. Which made sense, considering that this was her neck of the woods. And so Nonon would sip milky coffee and watch as banners and buntings were put out, and await her target.

* * *

Five cups, three trips to the bathroom (a proper one, thank God) and the entirety of all her tablet based reading material used up later, and she finally got her payoff as the crowds that had been slowly expanding ever since she'd sat down roared approval to the sound of a convoy pulling up just inside the gates. It only got louder as the girl of the hour exited the lead vehicle, waving to the crowd in earnest with a big smile. A surprising reception for one of Ryuko's inner circle, given who had reduced these people's former homes to dust. So, did this make Mako the face of Honnouji? An easy to like persona that would hold riots at bay and keep the government from looking into REVOCS' cruelties? She certainly looked like the kind of kind-hearted sap that could be trotted out obliviously to make for cheap newspaper headlines.

Nonon paused behind a family, ignoring the kid who pointed excitedly at her squirming headgear. Marika was still programmed to behave like a pet after all; the noise must have set her off. A hand on the head sorted that out quick as Nonon kept watching Mako Mankanshoku, trying to figure what was bothering her about the girl as she went up and down and all around the crowds, shaking every hand and kissing every baby presented to her almost all at once, a blur of continuous love echoed back from the masses. It was an infectious sort of love, as each person greeted in turn would break away from the mass to assist the One-Star forces with bringing in box after box of goods, handing them off to their neighbours and continuing the chain all the way into the depths of the Safe Zone.

A few minutes of this, and it clicked. The girl wasn't faking. Nonon had seen false cheer and goodwill plenty of times, handed out her fair share to cloying underclassmen and obnoxious family members over the years, but this girl was going full out all the time and fully embracing every hand that found hers, every teary-eyed family and spluttering elder. Did she have no sense of shame or personal space? If this was for publicity, this was going above and beyond the call of duty. Given half a chance and the crowds would probably start kissing her feet and building statues of her! Worse still was the constant cheer, as if the city wasn't ruled by a-

Nonon was so caught up in trying to decipher the Three-Star that she didn't notice the hand on her mouth until the squeak had escaped her own lips, some skinny bastard dragging her into a dark corner, using his massive coat for cover. In the middle of broad daylight no less, which meant that he was either a really ballsy pervert, or her disguise wasn't working out as well she hoped. Either way, this was going to get bloody. But before she could let Marika loose, a high and pure cry broke the crash of noise.

"Wait!"

The crowd silenced and split like a biblical sea, forming a straight path between Nonon, her attacker and Mako Mankanshoku, striding forward with the closest thing to a frown the girl could muster. Her assailant cursed under his breath as he removed his hand from her mouth, keeping her in place with a crowbar hold upon her throat instead.

**HONNOUJI ACADEMY SECRET POLICE CLUB PRESIDENT – SHUSEI KOGAMI**

"How can I help you, Lady Mankanshoku?"

Nonon wasn't quite sure how what happened next actually occurred. One second she was trying to jimmy the bastard's arm off her, the next she was standing behind Mako, the Three-Star pointing at her assailant, highlighted by her own personal spotlight.

"The rules of the Safe Zone are clear! No violence against anyone who makes it their home! As decreed by Ryuko… err… Lady Ryuko!"

The Two-Star scratched his chin (for some reason, his pitch-black uniform came with five o' clock shadow) before reaching into a deep pocket and pulling out a series of photos showing Nonon at her café table, various timestamps from over the past hour imprinted on the corners.

"This girl is under examination by the Espionage Society and us, the Secret Police Club. Upon entering the Safe Zone, her first course of action was to wait at a coffee shop until your arrival, instead of applying for asylum and assigned housing, as per the conditions of the Safe Zone. We believe her to be another Osakan Spy, and in accordance with the new measures laid out by Lady Ogure and Lady Kiryuin, we will be detaining her until further notice."

Mako threw her arm out defiantly.

"No way! I've been in every council meeting, stayed awake through all of them even, and I've not heard about any of this!"

"The decree was passed to us by Lady Ogure in person this morning, as part of new emergency measures to help combat enemies of Honnouji. Now, Lady Mankanshoku, I must ask you stand aside and take it up with your fellow Elites later."

Okay, time to lie like a champ before this turned really ugly.

"I was waiting!"

Both faces turned to her, Mako looking a little heartbroken until Nonon locked away her pride and enveloped the Elite's hands with hers, opening her eyes as wide as she could to look every bit the scruffy orphan.

"My name's Yayoi Kunizuka, I used to live in the Honno City slums. My parents were killed in the last Naturals Election and I've been homeless since then. But I heard that there was a place where even people like me could wash up in, and so I came here. But I was never expecting it to be so wonderful, so when I heard the person responsible was coming down to bring even more miracles; I just had to meet her!"

For the maximum amount of cheesy dialogue, she pulled Mako into a hug, burying her face into the shoulder. From what she'd seen of the Safe Zone's benefactor, there was no way she'd refuse.

"Thank you, Lady Mankanshoku!"

The cry was echoed by the crowd, again and again in waves all around. Shusei was suddenly looking less sure of his position as those that weren't praising her name were calling for him to leave, stones and cans cast from the mob landing dangerously close. Hidden away, Nonon smiled into the shoulder. Years of drama lessons and high society dinners had been a constant friend to her throughout their rebellion, and today was no different. Mako took her by the arms and pulled her out, eyes swimming in huge, blotchy tears. It seemed like the girl really was this much of a big-hearted sap, swallowing the whole affair hook, line and sinker. Perfect.

"Don't worry." She said, patting Nonon's beret. "I'll keep you safe."

She turned and wiped away her own tears in one movement, and from the roar of the crowd, you'd think flowers were about to sprout from the patches where they landed.

"If Maiko or Ryuko want to take anyone from the Safe Zone, they will come see me about it first! This is a peaceful place, and I will defend it and everyone who lives within it! Shusei Kogami, you are dismissed!"

The crowd roared even louder as the leader of the secret police (who was clearly new to the job if he was just up and telling people his department existed) muttered into his collar. At that moment, a series of smoke bombs detonated, the crowds scattering for safety as Mako looked to and fro desperately. Nonon drew a yo-yo from one pocket of her street clothes, pressing her back up against a wall to avoid getting jumped from behind again. She hadn't been able to bring her full assemble of gear, so here was hoping what she'd been able to stuff into her pockets was enough. Her question was quickly answered as five boys in black Goku Uniforms leapt out from the smoke, only for Nonon to hook the leg of the furthest right one with the string and whip him sideways, taking the group out in one swing. From behind her came a continuous stream of unintelligible noise combined with a multitude of pained cries and the sound of a thousand impacts all at once. Mako had vanished from sight, leaving her to keep snapping this way and that until the smoke cleared, leaving no point of attack unchecked. A flash lit up the grey, Nonon spinning to find the source. A sharp suited boy in black tie, hiding behind sunglasses and a tiny camera.

"Shit, you noticed me?"

**ESPIONAGE SOCIETY PRESIDENT – TOMOMI GINOZA**

"You know, for two clubs that should probably never be heard from, you guys sure make a lot of noise."

The second president had vanished into the fading smoke before she could follow that remark up with some retribution. Not that she had any intent of letting him run free, whipping off her beret and letting loose the beast within.

"Marika, time to go scavenging for nuts!"

Marika launched from her head and immediately bolted off down an alley as the smoke cleared completely, exposing the five boys Nonon had taken out previously. And a whole lot of face-down bodies on the streets. Mako had to have been surrounded by at least two hundred unconscious students, all stripped of their uniforms. A hazy purple mist hung by her shoulder, putting the fear of God into her opponents despite its lack of form. Two Club Presidents faced her down, both transformed. Shusei Kogami was dressed like a cyberpunk detective, the student at his side a hodgepodge of history. Some idiot had decided that the looks of British Grenadiers, pirates, samurai, cowboys and Indians, Knights of the Round Table and ninjas had yet to be brought together, and so had combined as many eras of history as he could into one outfit. Needless to say, he looked ridiculous, as impressive as dual-wielding an executioner's axe and a musket was.

**HISTORICAL RE-ENACTMENT CLUB PRESIDENT – MOMOGA MATSUMOTO**

The purple haze from Mako's shoulder vanished, the Elite exhaling in a manner that didn't sound the least bit tired.

"If you want, we just stop now. I can talk to Maiko and Ryuko, tell them that this was all just a misunderstanding. You won't have clubs left if you keep going."

The two students shared a look, coming to a unanimous decision in an instant as they levelled musket and handgun at the Elite.

"Maybe you can get away with failing Lady Kiryuin, but she'll have our heads if we flee."

"And I'd be a disgrace if I failed to hold the line, me hearty!"

Seriously, pick a time period and an accent and stick with it. It wasn't hard. From behind the commotion, there was a screech that Nonon knew all too well as the third president came back on the scene, Marika fast on his tail with tattered cloth lodged in her metal fangs. Looked like she'd found the target perfectly. Before he could change course, Nonon whipped out her yo-yo again, wrapping it around a lamppost to trip the Two-Star and send him flying. The other two recovered from the shock of his arrival and fired point-blank at Mako, who just sighed in response.

"I'm sorry."

The shots were swallowed up by the purple mist seconds before Mako punched through it, knocking the boys' heads together and sending them flying towards their co-conspirator, the three colliding together in a mid-air Life Fiber explosion.

**WHAM, BAM, THANK YOU MA'AM!**

The eruption was barely over before Nonon recalled Marika back to her shoulder. Time to get clear of the mission zone before Mako came around for her.

"Yayoi."

The callout, and her barely even five steps away from the Elite. Nonon raised her yo-yo in defence, Marika preparing herself for another attack as Mako padded closer, the mist once again gone from sight.

"Although, that's not your real name, is it?"

Nonon just shook her head, waiting for the slightest twitch of an attack.

"And you're a spy?"

"Not exactly. I'm not here for corporate secrets, but I'm also not a friend to Honnouji."

Mako was already calling in people to deal with the three wounded clubs, keeping Nonon fixed in her vision. Despite the ruckus the people of the Safe Zone had made over their arrival, the bodies were being treated gently, some residents cracking open the new supply crates in order to heal the injured students.

"I'm going to ask once. Please leave, and don't come back. This is a safe place; I just want to keep it that way."

"A safe place your leader let her secret police into. She wasn't even subtle about it; they were actually called secret police!"

"I know Ryuko's done some bad things, but she's getting better!"

Mako's eyes were full of tears again.

"Every day she smiles a little more. Good smiles, not the creepy ones. She doesn't get angry so much, and even when she does, she calms down quicker! And people like you just set her back, make her angry! So please, just leave! Because I'm going to protect her and this place for as long as I can, no matter who comes here!"

Nonon could feel her jaw hanging loose at the nonsense spilling from the girl's mouth. There was naivety, and there was… this.

"You're as mad as she is if you think you'll change anything here."

"I can! I will! Because I'm a Mankanshoku, and I know what I want, and how to get it, and I'm too determined to let it go now! She and I are going to make this a proper school again, where people can be happy and live without cares!"

Silence reigned as Nonon gave up on a fight she hadn't been too invested in in the first place, throwing her hands up and walking away from the madwoman.

"Who are you anyway? Did the guy with all the money send you?"

Nonon thought on her response a second, waiting until she was near out of earshot before she looked back and answered.

"In Heaven's stead, I smite clothing."

She clearly didn't understand, but nodded anyway, turning on her heel to direct the recovery efforts of her people. Nonon slipped through the incoming crowd, vanishing out of sight of man and camera alike.

* * *

"There is something else to be considered."

"Which is?

"As much as I hate to admit it, the Naturals Elections may be of some use to us when we take back the academy. The students I faced seemed too strong for Two-Stars. One of them even bared a second transformation, albeit one that used other uniforms to form it."

"You believe the continuous fighting has strengthened the students?"

"Indeed, and their uniforms. Iori will have undoubtedly been forced into creating stronger models."

"My thoughts exactly. The Naturals Elections may yet become a double-edged sword to strike Ryuko and REVOCS with."

* * *

Maiko was damn near ecstatic, so much so she didn't even care that two of her finest clubs had been completely dismantled by the girl kneeling before the iron throne of the student council chambers. Enough losers could be drummed up to replace them, given a couple of days. No, the real cherry of the situation was that another spy had wormed their way in, and the idiot had aided them completely! Wanted posters were already going up, for what little good they'd be. The intruder had already escaped, and given that the hair found at the scene of the crime was synthetic, literally every detail of her appearance was up for debate, even those taken from video imagery. But it was all worth it to watch the queen bitch struggle with the realisation that she'd have to punish the lover she was pretending not to have. Glorious, glorious retribution! Finally, Ryuko took her head from her hands, rising from her chair with a bamboo cane ready for her at the bottom of the steps.

"Mako, remove your shirt."

The girl did so without hesitation, letting it slide to the floor to reveal a frilly, pink and white bra. Maiko was going to have to look up exactly what that meant when this was over, but she was going to bet it just labelled her a stupid whore. Nothing she didn't know already, of course. Beside her, Uzu and Houka had closed their eyes to shy away from the girl's disgrace. Part of her wished that they'd offered her the same courtesy when it had been her under the whip, but Houka was probably just making sure he didn't see any indecent parts of the girl. Such a gentleman. Ryuko's graven face showed nothing as she raised the cane.

"Mako Mankanshoku, you are charged with aiding and abetting an enemy of Honnouji Academy, as well as the unnecessary destruction of three clubs. Do you have anything to say before punishment is delivered?"

"I'm sorry, Ryuko."

Her jaw twitched; her hand flinched. For once in her life, the ruler of Honnouji Academy was reluctant to deliver a beating.

"Lady Kiryuin, what are you waiting for? Failure must be punished. Is that not your creed?"

Ryuko turned her head slowly, with the ache of grinding bone. The second they locked eyes, it was as if she and the room were gone, suddenly plunged down to the deepest pit of hell. A realm where she could not move, only stand, frozen, her whole body aflame with those mad eyes holding her in place, pouring fire down her throat to set her soul ablaze.

"Ogure, shut your damn whore mouth before I ram this and ten others like it down your throat."

Discretion was the better part of valour. Best not to push her luck, she was already getting what she wanted. Ryuko raised her arm again, and brought the false blade across Mako's back with a sickening crack. And another. And another. Twenty lashes were dealt out in short order, Mako's sobbing growing louder with each strike to her flesh. When the job was done, Ryuko cast the hilt aside and turned the world-burning glare on them again.

"Out. All of you."

Uzu and Houka had already pulled her from the room before she could come up with another smart comment.

* * *

People didn't mean much to Ryuko. They were pigs, worthless animals to be played with, used and broken at her pleasure. Tools for the Kiryuin empire. Walking meals for those that mattered. She should have been sickened by the weakness pooled before her. But Mako's back was bleeding so terribly, and her crying was so awful to her ears that she could not help but kneel there, hold her beloved tight and whisper an endless litany of apologises. Life Fibers slipped out from under her fingers, pulling the skin together and absorbing the blood with makeshift stitches. Uzu would send for nurses to patch her up more properly soon, but for now, for once, she would put together what she had broken.

She planted kisses into Mako's hair again and again, holding out vainglorious hopes that she could ease the pain, but received only gasps and sobs, quaking arms feebly holding her in return. She settled for resting her chin there as she did her work. Sat a short space away, the sole picture from that afternoon's battle, taken by one of the inept fools who'd been busted down to No-Star rank and given equal pains. A string flicked out, holding closer for inspection. A teenaged girl. Black hair, green eyes, flat as a board. She'd discarded it out of hand before, too disbelieving that Mako could fail her, but now it drew her. Why?

_"Is that not the Jakuzure girl who went missing half a solar cycle or so ago?"_

_"Junketsu, I could kiss you."_

_"Please do. Some of Mako's blood resides upon your lips."_

Nurses scurried in, Ryuko relinquishing Mako to their attentions with a final squeeze of support. She would be in good hands, and Ryuko had a phone call to make. If Nonon Jakuzure was back, then she could only be with one person. One back-stabbing, no life, snake in the grass rotten whore. Nui was so going to lose that bet.

The line rang twice before it was picked up on the other end.

"Ragyo Kiryuin's office, how may I help you?"

"Hououmaru, is mum there?"

"Ryuko? This is a surprise. I'm afraid you just missed her, she's just gone out for lunch."

"Can you give her a message when she gets back?"

"Of course, what is it?"

"Tell her that I'm going to need Nui over here."

There was a sigh on the other end of the line.

"Ryuko, you can't…"

"She'll want to send her. I think I've located Jakuzure's missing kid and…"

"And?"

"I think Satsuki's come back to Honnouji Academy."


	6. Monkey Wrench

Chapter 6: Monkey Wrench

_The dojo was quiet. At this hour of the day, one should have been able to find the kendo club in full swing, rattling the timbers with the slap of wooden swords and shaking armours. He'd told them to stay home today. A storm was coming, and he needed to stare it down alone. And so he stood and swung, over and over again. The simplest training a swordsman could do to better himself. No thoughts of how to break an enemy's guard or protect his in turn. No thoughts of the difference in skill or power. No thoughts of battles, past and future, to take inspiration from or look towards. Just him and the sword, over and over again._

_Simple. Clean. Pure. And that was what he needed right now, if he was to survive Storm Ryuko. Ira had finally taken all he could take, and had taken her to task for her actions during the last Naturals Elections. The last Uzu had seen of the man, he was flying clean away from the city, a battered mess thrown from the peak by Ryuko's monstrous strength._

_The air whistled as he cut it, over and over again._

_Uzu couldn't say he was totally in either's camp. Sure, the No-Stars had shown little promise of achieving anything greater than the sum of their parts, and clearing out the slums had wiped out a great deal of low-lives, criminals and rebellious pockets, but he couldn't condone the mass slaughter that had taken place either. Especially since he knew that Ryuko had only gone down there to entertain herself._

_Was that where his path led? If he became able to wear a fourth star, a fifth, a sixth? If he acquired the strength to wear a Kamui himself, would such absolute power leave him ultimately unsatisfied, seeking challenges that simply couldn't be realised? Would he also turn upon his fellow man to scratch the itch, hoping to find the same joy in stomping down that he earned from reaching up to bloody the noses of those above him?_

_One final swing, another mark cut into the floor by the slicing of the wind. The doors slammed open, and such thoughts were tided away. Batten down the hatches; Storm Ryuko was upon him, sharp fingers digging into the wood, leaving long wounds as she pulled her hunched-over form through the threshold, high heels stabbing into the floor. Junketsu's eyes blazed with unimaginable hatred, with Uzu fixed in its sights._

_"You know why I'm here."_

_Her voice was disjointed, like someone else was moving the mouth and pushing out wind to mimic speech from her frame. Collecting the towel at his feet, he mopped his brow and body clear._

_"Yeah, I know."_

_He reached down, retrieving a second practise blade._

_"And you know I'm no traitor."_

_"Liar. Everyone… lying."_

_The second sword clattered before her. Wild eyes danced behind a curtain of black and red, assessing the offering. Locking onto him._

_"Let's find out. Fight me, and see if my sword tells the truth. People always come to know each other's true intentions from locking blades, after all."_

_The quiet hung for a single second, before exploding in an eruption of noise as Ryuko ripped the weapon from the ground and shot at him at near supersonic speeds. A mad beast with a sword and a man seeking to wound heaven with his blade collided, and the storm of battle roared throughout Honnouji._

* * *

"Right then… shinai, check."

Obviously, he was going to need those. Four wooden swords, just in case they broke. And considering his opponent today, he'd likely need spares.

"Goku Uniform in the wash… check."

If she couldn't beat him as he was, there'd be no need for it anyway. Besides, it really needed a scrub.

"Bitching jacket… check."

A long, white leather affair. Omiko's idea, as it was rather chilly today despite the sun bearing down on Honnouji. Nice girl, shame she was dating the Boxing Club President or he'd have snapped her up himself.

"Dog treats… check"

You had to have presents when visiting a lady, after all.

"Now then… where are hiding, Lady Satsuki?"

He closed his eyes, and saw everything.

* * *

**MATOI MANSION BASEMENT**

**ONE DAY UNTIL THE NATURALS ELECTION**

"Mako Mankanshoku." Nonon said dully, throwing a plethora of magazines, newspapers and pictures before the breakfasting trio of Life Fiber Hunters, Satsuki immediately throwing herself into them to absorb information. There'd been somewhat of a delay in their intelligence session, as Nonon had come back from the Safe Zone in rather a bedraggled state the evening before and had spent the night staring off into space, deep in thought other than to note that it would likely be her sole visit into Honnouji until the elections. It seemed the watershed had broken on her thoughts, as once she got started on Ryuko's right hand she barely stopped, even as Ira pottered around placing plates of eggs and bacon before them. Normally she would have complained about the greasy platter handed down to her.

"Three Star student in charge of Honnouji's Non-Athletic clubs, Custodian of No-Star students, creator of the Safe Zone, and more or less a saint to everyone who lives there. Like the stripper said, she turned up about a year ago, elected outside a Naturals Election only for her to not even bother with her duties other than token appearances at student council meetings. But, about six months ago…"

She picked up a scruffy copy of an old school newspaper.

**Mankanshoku Declares Formation of Safe Zone**

"I was able to dig up a lot of these from the slums right outside the zone proper. They hold onto them to use as blankets for all the homeless they got down there. The Safe Zone's only growing as quickly as Ryuko allows it, after all. Better use for it than reading the damn thing if you ask me, it's a complete rag in most regards."

Ira quickly flipped away from the funny pages, Nonon rolling her eyes as she opened up a second copy to continue the narrative.

"Building work took about a week, not that anyone has any idea as to how she pulled that off single-handedly. Things went pretty much as expected from there. She throws open the doors and only gets a couple of families, because no-one's going to be in the slums with the Naturals Election coming unless they're desperate as hell."

Another newspaper, another headline.

**Gambling Club Shortens Odds on Safe Zone Survival – 3/1**

"So when the Election rolls around with Mankanshoku competing for the first time, everyone who feels cheated by her unearned position, every scavenger who wants the supplies she's dumped into the Safe Zone, every arsehole who just wants to pull it down for shits and grins makes a beeline for her. She's never even used her uniform before, how hard could it be?"

Another newspaper.

**Mankanshoku Holds the Line and Title! Gambling Club Bankrupt!**

"Turns out Ryuko put a huge bet on her girl, and it paid off handsomely. They lost track of how many clubs were dismantled after Mankanshoku was done with them, not to mention all the thugs from out of town she disposed of. All without killing a single one, it should be noted. Anyway, it all picks up from there. Mankanshoku pours in more money, more desperate families and One-Stars worried about their parents pitch up, and every month she throws back the barbarian hordes, a situation which holds to this day. They damn near worship her down there Satsuki, and she throws herself into the crowds in kind. No-Stars were close to mobbing the Presidents that came after me just because they were giving her funny looks."

Satsuki finished her toast in two neat bites, folding away the magazine she'd just skimmed through.

"Did you get a read on her strength, the power of her uniform?"

"Only the aftermath. I was too busy with goons to get a good look, and the place was full of smoke. Whatever she has, it works. It negated the Two-Star attacks like they were nothing."

"I see. What information have you located on her personal life?"

"That was the easy part. It seems the Mankanshoku family isn't as caring or giving as the daughter."

She indicated to a number of gossip magazines, all running a common theme. An overweight man, a woman sporting a pink beehive and a suited boy were spread across the front pages in various states of misadventures, accompanied by a dog wearing a hoodie in every picture.

"New money Z-tier celebrities at their finest. They've got more cash than they know what to do with and too much time on their hands, so they drink themselves stupid and waste as much as they can getting into faux-scandals. Not even worth a second of our attention, and it seems Mankanshoku feels the same, as she hasn't been seen with them since starting the Safe Zone. Which…"

Nonon trailed off, a rarity for her. Satsuki laced her fingered, waiting.

"Thank you for your efforts Nonon; even this little gives us a start. However, if you have something else, please share it. Any information is useful, even if it just insubstantial."

Nonon's face lit up from the praise, but when she spoke again, it was far less cocksure than her usual tones.

"Satsuki, before I tell you the last of this, keep in mind it's all just rumours and speculation from locals. The old lady who set me on this track was trying to set me up with her grandson at the time."

"I'm sure I will endure. Go on."

Nonon pulled out another set of magazines, all running similar front pages with an abundance of pink and red from cover to cover.

**Mako Mankanshoku: Lady Kiryuin's Secret Lover?**

**Is Safe Zone a Bribe to Silence Her?**

**Honnouji Values Corrupted! Elite Promoted Without Trial!**

**Mankanshoku's Morning Trysts with Lady Kiryuin!**

"You can see where they're coming from. Ryuko promotes a No-Star to her council outside a Naturals Election and without previous experience. Anyone who asks her about Mankanshoku gets killed on the spot, and to top it off, she allows the formation of a Safe Zone, a place which completely contradicts her survival of the fittest, power stands alone philosophy, open up shop on her front garden. And it seems Mankanshoku moved into Ryuko's place to get away from her family. For all intents and purposes, it looks like they're all set up together, and Mankanshoku gets special treatment because Ryuko doesn't want to come out of the closet. And when I spoke to Mankanshoku, she seemed awfully invested in the idea she could change Ryuko's murderous ways."

Satsuki remained silent, rifling through magazines at quick pace, not noticing the concerned look her companions shared to one another. Satsuki spoke little of her family other than detailing how they would be defeated, but it was only just occurring to the pair that it was possible a spark of familial feelings remained. Could Satsuki simply be concerned that her sister might have been exploited, in spite of herself? Disappointed in the choice of partner, perhaps? Nonon cleared her throat awkwardly and continued.

"Well, either way, I think it'd be a good way to destabilise her. Take out Mankanshoku and it'll probably throw Ryuko off-balance, both personally and in her hierarchy. If we can take her out during the Naturals Elections, even better. Wiping out an Elite before the finals would make for a serious display that you're back in action and taking names."

Still no response, only the gentle ruffle of paper.

"Plates please."

Traitorous bastard! Nonon resolved to have Marika bite Ira's arse later, when he least expecting it. Random, unpredictable times every day, for as long as they worked together. With the Toad beating a hasty retreat away from the awkward situation, she was left to sweat alone as Satsuki silently poured over each and every piece of paper that Nonon had brought before her, and gathering up so much intel seemed to have been a worse and worse idea the more Nonon sat there. The lack of any real reaction was driving an ice-cold rod right up her spine, unknowing if she'd actually helped the cause or whether she'd simply dumped a ton of tabloid gossip at her feet like a cat presenting dead birds to their master, ignorant of their actual needs.

Finally, Satsuki brought an end to her torment.

"Your instincts have served you well."

Nonon released a breath she hadn't realised she'd been holding onto.

"O-oh? How so?"

Satsuki laid a newspaper before her, pointing to the central image.

**Lady Kiryuin Visits Safe Zone – Surprisingly Few Causalities!**

The image showed Ryuko and Mako walking together, examining their surroundings. Mako seemed full of energy, pointing excitedly to something out of frame, Ryuko following her Elite's direction with rather more passive gazing. Satsuki began to explain before Nonon could ask.

"When my mother takes a partner of either gender, it is for her pleasure and her pleasure alone. They are little more than a tool for her needs. I imagine Nui takes after her in that way, desperate as she is to emulate and impress her. Neither would consider taking on a task for a partner if they did not wish to. Look at Ryuko's eyes. She is bored, tremendously so. She likely only visited the Safe Zone at Mankanshoku's request."

"And that's good?" Nonon asked, trying not to imagine the lanky, harpy-esque figure of Ragyo Kiryuin in bed with anyone. She failed, much to her chagrin. Trying to filter out the Grand Couturier riding some unfortunate soul to their death was met with equal urges to vomit.

"Very much so. It shows that either Ryuko is not as possessed by Life Fibers as I thought, that Mankanshoku is truthful in her claims of "fixing" her, or that Ryuko has finally found a relationship she can invest her humanity into. Any of these outcomes are a boon for us. However, I would not choose Mankanshoku as an upcoming target. Any assault involving the Safe Zone would only reflect poorly upon us. If public opinion is to be overturned in favour of our arrival, we would be better served by removing Ogure or Sanageyama from power."

"Well, regarding them…"

There was a sudden knock on a door that should never had required knocking upon. The two girls jumped to attention immediately, weighing up outcomes.

"Were you followed back?"

"I don't think so. I had Marika checking behind us the whole time. REVOCS maybe?"

"If it is, they've certainly become rather more polite."

Before either could make a move, a deep voice rumbled from behind the escape door that had been knocked upon.

* * *

"Sanageyama? What are you doing here?"

Ira set the plates down and raised his fists, cursing himself for not wearing his armour at all times, even on a day of peace. He would punish himself later, but for now he had to deal with his old acquaintance bare-handed. Hopefully the swordsman would think him alone and pursue him away from the girls. As it was, Uzu Sanageyama just shot him one of his standard grins, leaning back into the escape door.

"Ah, you know how it is. Ryuko's losing her shit over everything that's been happening recently, and I figured I'd hunt you guys down, bring back the bodies and get her to stop climbing the walls. How is Lady Satsuki anyway?"

"I don't know what it is you believe you know Sanageyama, but I am here alone. As far as I know, Lady Satsuki is still in exile in Europe."

Uzu cocked an eyebrow, looking to Ira's feet.

"Really? Cause that's an awful lot of plates for one person, even a big guy like yourself."

Just as Ira made to lunge, the door was pulled back and the Elite found himself falling backwards, robbed of his normal cat-like grace. A vicious grin, a slab of metal rushing towards him and a hollow clang were the last things he registered before he blacked out.

* * *

"Come on, isn't this a little bit ridiculous?"

"Not at all. Capturing an enemy who stumbles upon your territory is standard procedure in times of war."

"For the record, I'm just going to go out and say I told you that this was an awful hiding place."

Uzu had awoken to find himself tied up on a dusty floor, a tiny pink-haired girl standing over him wielding a frying pan as Ira prostrated himself before the woman thought lost to the Kiryuin family. Now the three were just standing around deciding what to do with him, Satsuki examining everything he'd brought with him. She finally settled on picking up a flash drive and an SD card that had been nestled in his pocket.

"Taking lessons from Inumuta are we? I must say, things like this don't really seem your style."

Damn, even now her sharp voice chilled him to the bone in way Ryuko's violence could never achieve. In spite of that absolute authority, he managed a weak smile.

"Well, guess I'm hoping they're more suited to your tastes. He fobbed them off on me before I left this morning. Guess he figured out I'd be heading your way."

Satsuki flicked the devices over to Nonon, who began to run the SD card within her tablet. After a few seconds of tapping and swiping, she handed it over to her leader, who examined the information with a soft smile.

"It is nice to see some things never change. Untie him Nonon."

"What? You're sure?"

"You heard the lady, didn't you half-pint?"

Nonon's eyes flashed in time with the raising of her makeshift weapon. Thankfully, Satsuki let him loose before further potential brain damage could occur, stepping between the pair to begin proper introductions.

"Uzu Sanageyama, this is Nonon Jakuzure, former scion of the Jakuzure Transportation Company. Nonon Jakuzare, this is Uzu Sanageyama, formerly of the Northern Kanto Gang Leader Alliance, currently one of the three Elites I left to supervise Honnouji Academy."

"Great job you've been doing." The little miss hissed at him as a quick handshake ensued. Girl had a grip like a boa constrictor. Satsuki brought the tablet before her and Ira before another argument could break out.

"Inumuta has been waiting for us for some time it seems. This data packet contains information on Honnouji Academy activity at all levels of operation, as well as the full blueprints. No major modifications have been made at a glance, despite Ryuko being aware of the secondary functions of the academy. Iori has also been kind enough to send us a full library regarding the specifications for each and every Goku Uniform currently in use, as well as his patch notes on their growth over the years. It appears our suspicions were correct Ira, as they seem to have doubled in effectiveness since your departure."

She turned back to their unexpected mole.

"Thank you for your assistance Sanageyama. However, I cannot believe you risked revealing our location to Ryuko simply for something that was handed to you on a whim."

He shouldn't have been quite so gleeful, yet nothing could stop the slow grin that reached up to his ears at the implication.

"Dead on, Lady Satsuki. Considering how long you've been away, I was kinda concerned you hadn't been using your blade for much. And I believe I'm owed a rematch."

Nonon's jaw dropped.

"You cannot be serious."

* * *

It seemed he was, as both of the soon-to-be combatants had headed outside without another word. With Ira keeping an eye out for any unwanted attention, the two faced down outside the Matoi mansion, Uzu discarding his jacket as he took up a shinai, Satsuki holding Bakuzan-Prime at her waist, still sheathed.

"You've come here without your Goku Uniform? Are you so arrogant to believe that my blade has dulled, Uzu Sanageyama?"

"I just wanna show you how I've done on the stage you granted me, Lady Satsuki. If you cannot best me here, you'll crumble before Ryuko. Besides, the damn thing needed a wash anyway."

Behind Satsuki, Nonon palmed her face, muttering something about filthy monkeys. Satsuki just nodded.

"Very well then. Shall we begin?"

And with that, she stepped forward and lunged for Uzu's midriff, a blow easily stopped and turned away, the Elite mimicking the stab with a cry of "DOU!" Satsuki followed her attack through to the side, flowing around the attempted blow and swinging for the wrists. Uzu pulled his attack short to block again, twisting his wrists as the two stood blade-to-blade, a man's strength quivering against a Kiryuin's determination.

"I see your eyes haven't dulled in my absence."

"Not even slightly. I can see further and clearer than ever before now."

They broke apart and danced back in a dozen times, clashing to the sound of lacquered wood meeting faster than any outsider could witness as they probed the other for gaps in their guard. Nonon sat shocked on the sidelines, frantically scrolling for information in the files they'd received. Not once in all her time with Satsuki had she ever seen Bakuzan-Prime stopped, sheathed or not. And this monkey was holding her advance with only a tightened jaw to show his struggle. She found his page in the notes, reading as fast as she could.

"Eyes, eyes, what about his damned eyes?"

"The gaze that traces every outline and sees the body's truest words. The Secret Technique of Clairvoyance! That is Uzu Sanageyama's power."

Ira knelt beside her as he rumbled out his half explanation. The area must have been safe for the time being.

"What on earth are you talking about?"

"It's quite simple. He can read the preparatory motions in the body language of his opponent to predict where and how they will move in battle. That is how he holds Lady Satsuki's blade. However, this technique has been known to both of us for the longest time, and she will have an answer waiting."

As if waiting for Ira's explanation, Satsuki threw a cloud of dirt at Uzu's face. When the swordsman moved to avoid it, she caught him with a left hook and brought Bakuzan-Prime down onto his weapon as he staggered back, the practise blade cracking under the weight of the strike. Before she could finish the fight, Uzu had claimed a second shinai, swinging it up to defend himself. Pushing back, he began a more aggressive fighting style, discarding precision in favour of an unending wave of strikes, one after another as Satsuki fell into a natural defensive stance, halting each blow before it could threaten her. With each block, the cracking sound when the blades met grew harsher and sharper, until Uzu leapt back, throwing both at his opponent. As Satsuki shattered the makeshift projectiles with a downward blow, Uzu had already rearmed himself, swinging wildly into the gap.

"It's over, Satsuki Kiryuin! I've read all your defences!"

As the audience waited the clash of weapons again, Uzu's left hand shinai slapped Satsuki's thigh with a sickening whip of struck flesh, the right only turned away by the sheathed sword in the nick of time. Satsuki's eyes narrowed as Nonon and Ira's jaws nearly separated from their faces.

"So, that is your new strength."

"WHAT?"

Before Nonon could complain, Ira had already overridden her.

"His eyes… how long have they been closed?"

Uzu broke off his assault, swinging both shinai out dramatically, whipping dust up into a whirlwind around him.

"Being able to predict movements with your eyes only works until your opponent blocks your sight. And when you spar with Ryuko Kiryuin, she'll gouge out every weakness presented to her. As such, I learned to fight in the dark, allowing me to see everything! This is my new power, the Authority of the Mind's Eye!"

**NEW POWER – SHINGANTSU**

"It's also how I was able to hunt you down, Lady Satsuki. Shingantsu lets me see everything from the whisper of your breath to the roar of the sea halfway across the world. My attacks are unavoidable now!"

He shot towards her again, continuing to set the pace with that wild two sword style, Satsuki firmly on the back foot as she worked on diverting or neutralising every swing thrown her way, slowly backing towards the ruins. With a quick strike to create space between them, she dived into the mansion, weaving in and out of the desolated rooms as Uzu pursued. She ducked behind low walls to escape the cuts of wind that whipped through the foundations, threw back relics of debris in return. Each hastily-assembled projectile was scattered by the rapid whirl of Uzu's wooden swords.

"Is this what the proud Satsuki Kiryuin is deduced to? Base tricks and running?"

"All is fair in love and war. And in time, even cowardice can produce victory!"

Declaration made; Satsuki burst out from behind him with a bold swing. Uzu sneered and raised his guard against the obviously telegraphed attack, only to watch as Bakuzan-Prime split both swords at the hilt.

"What? How?"

Satsuki provided an answer by planting a kick into his side, a fist connecting with his chin as he recoiled to cast him into the ash of the Matoi mansion. The tip of Bakuzan-Prime was already at his throat before he could rise again.

"Even if one can see everything, a human's focus is easily misled. I have never unsheathed my blade for you, so the idea that I might was the furthest thing from your mind as you stopped my tricks. A trick beneath the tricks. That is how you have been defeated, Uzu Sanageyama."

And with that, she turned on her heel to retrieve her sheath, Nonon cheering heartily in the entrance.

* * *

"Don't worry about anyone else sniffing around here. Shingantsu is the only reason I found you in the first place, and I can tell Ryuko that I scoped it out around here and found nothing."

"We would appreciate that."

"No problem. You can thank me by making it to the Sudden Death Runoff. I'm guessing that's why you're back?"

"Indeed. Ira has informed me of the atrocities committed at Honnouji, and we are fast running out of time. It seemed prudent that I return. Once I have defeated Ryuko and taken her position, we can draw up the walls, inform the students of the war to come and prepare to move on REVOCS as soon as time permits. Should Ragyo or Nui intend to step in, we shall simply meet them here, a place designed for their destruction."

"And Ryuko?"

There was a short pause.

"Ideally, I would like to have her see sense, and turn away from REVOCS. I have acquired intelligence that suggests that this may be possible."

"Let me guess. Mako?"

"Mako Mankanshoku, yes. As a council member, do you have any insights on her?"

"She's a bit scatter-brained, but she's a good girl. Too good to be tangled up with the likes of us. Strong too, more than I gave her credit for. Managing to round down even one of Ryuko's edges is a miracle. That said… don't expect much. A rounded stone is still a good way to crack a skull open."

"I am aware. In the event that Ryuko refuses to step down or surrender, then I shall remove her from the board. One less monster on REVOCS' side."

Uzu went to say something, catching himself halfway.

"Well, if anyone can do it, it's you. When should we expect you to start tearing the place up?"

"We will make our move on day seven of the event and enter ourselves into the final brackets. Even with the enhanced strength of the Goku Uniforms, we shouldn't encounter any real resistance from outside the Elite Four."

"Alright then, I'll see you there. Take care of yourselves until then. Even you, short stuff."

"Pray I don't get drawn against you, monkey-boy. They won't find the body."

And with that, Uzu began his return to Honnouji, his laughter carried on the wind. Once he was gone and the trio was settled back in their base, Satsuki started pouring over the data provided to them by their inside man.

"So, how do we know this Inumuta guy isn't just sabotaging us?" Nonon asked. Ira had left to finish the cleaning of the tableware.

"When I installed the three boys as Ryuko's Elites, they had been made aware of what was to come and their duties if they wished to follow me. Out of all three, it was Sanageyama I was most concerned would fall into corruption. That his lust for battle would overtake his common sense and cause him to go turncoat. Houka Inumuta cares little for anything other than his own interests, which the destruction of the Earth would interrupt somewhat."

"So, that's just Mankanshoku and Ogure we have to worry about. Looks like taking back Honnouji will be easier than we thought."

Satsuki didn't respond, returning to her research, leaving Nonon to go back to checking all of her equipment. Only when the diminutive girl stepped outside to stretch her limbs did Satsuki answer the room, a low sigh as she looked over the data once more, finding the pages for the Elite Four.

"Perhaps, perhaps not. No plan survives contact with the enemy, after all."

**THREE STAR GOKU UNIFORM – EMPRESS REGALIA**

**THREE STAR GOKU UNIFORM – PLATINUM REGALIA**

**THREE STAR GOKU UNIFORM – SPYMASTER REGALIA**

**FOUR STAR GOKU UNIFORM – WAR GOD REGALIA**

**PENDING DATA – KAMUI JUNKETSU – FULL SYNCHRONISATION**


	7. Welcome to the Jungle

Chapter 7: Welcome to the Jungle

The room stank of blood and urine. Not hers, obviously. Nui was a good girl, and gave people what they were looking for when they asked for ever so politely. If the bound and stuffed pig in the chair had wanted an easy life, he would have simply signed the documents the second they were produced, instead of calling for security and resisting her tender touch. If you thought about it, he only had himself to blame for his current predicament. But even her famous debating methods were starting to get a little stale, so it was time to pull out her trump card. She sat opposite her fellow businessperson, legs together and hands her lap like the lady of high society she was.

"Mr Reebok, I'm only going to ask this one more time, and if you deny me again, I'll be ever so cross. It's not really too much to ask, is it? Just one little signature?"

There was no response, and Nui sighed in mock-frustration.

"Very well, I see you've left me no choice."

She got up, her heels barely making a sound as she crossed the room. The man tied to the other chair whipped his head back and forth, trying to figure out where she might have been. A difficult task with no eyes. The ropes about his arms shifted with his feeble rocking, vaingloriously trying to escape his bonds right up until she slipped behind him. There was little more than a chilled shudder as she drew one finger across the exposed patch of skin on the back of his neck.

"Oh, now you start moving. Well then, you'll be very interested in my next proposition."

The finger came to rest on a sewing needle lodged in at the intersection of neck and spine.

"Do you feel that? See, I've been considerate of your needs so far. This little needle's been keeping most of what you should have been feeling from registering in that tiny little head of yours. Tell me Mr Reebok, what do you think would happen if I were to remove it?"

She silently counted off the ten seconds for the realisation to occur, her little pendulum head bobs interrupted by a pain-rusted whisper.

"Papers."

"See, that wasn't so difficult, was it?"

Her briefcase was in the corner of the room, shielded from the worst of the viscera by a blood-soaked jacket. His, of course. Nui's dress was a vestment of the heavens, and could never be marred by the filth of the world. It was difficult enough keeping it spotless while she worked as it was. Ryuko was so lucky. Junketsu sucked up all the blood without even blinking, and only required the occasional wash to maintain his divinity.

She took the briefcase over to the desk at the head of the room, popped it open and retrieved the necessary documents, laying them out with clean and proper precision. Not a paper out of place, everything done correctly. Let no pig accuse Nui of being party to improper business decorum. Mr Reebok was wheeled back to his place of business, a pen placed into the hand without broken fingers. Nui was a smart girl, and she knew that you always left the other team a way out. Destroying the dominant hand was simply bad for business. But just to make sure, she held his hand and guided the pen through every loop and flourish.

And with the signature complete, that was the last of her high-flying boardroom life over and done with. She sighed wistfully as she shuffled the papers back into the briefcase. Suits would never be her thing, but the life of a high-class businesswoman had suited her perfectly. Vicious takeovers, intense meetings, tearing down stocks, all such fun! Still, it was time for her to go; back to Japan and to mother's waiting arms. She withdrew her parasol and shattered the windows leading out into the world. Good wind today, she'd be at the airport in no time. She was just about to leave when she realised something very important, and made her way back to the former CEO.

"Terribly sorry about this, but that needle? Part of a set, and I really can't misplace any of them. A birthday present from my dear sister, you know. Sooooooo…"

She popped the needle free in the blink of an eye, returning it to its brethren and folding the case out of sight. The noise that crawled out from the man's throat could not be described as a scream. It was barely even human, a drawn-out, raging, keening thing drenched in pain. Nui leant down to his ear.

"Should I make it stop?"

Somehow, he found the strength to nod, bloody tears rolling down his face. He was not left crying for long, as Nui took on the heavy but nevertheless necessary task. She wheeled the chair over to the window on the hundredth floor, and pushed.

The sky had already taken her away before he hit the ground. And as an added bonus, the crunch of bones kept anyone from looking up and seeing her unmentionables. She was halfway to the airport when her phone rang, which left her with a small problem. She had to hold onto the briefcase because it was important to mother, but she very well couldn't let go of her parasol, now could she? She'd drop out the sky! She quickly came up with a solution, even if it was graceless to hold a briefcase in your teeth.

"Mon-Mignon Prêt-à-Porter."

A second Nui immerged from the parasol and took the briefcase. The extra weight would slow them down, but Nui so rarely received phone calls. A quick rummage in her cleavage found her phone. An iPhone 6, one of four made before mother had the company burned down for their blatant over indulgence of the colour white. White was the colour of heaven and their messengers, after all. A Kiryuin colour, not that of pigs. Not that Nui really saw all the fuss over the device. It looked exactly the same as the last one. But it did contain the numbers of her three most favourite people, and allowed her to hear the delightful whisper of her most favourite person, even while the base earth kept them apart.

"Oui, maman?"

"Nui, how goes the Reebok meeting?"

"All finished and complete ma'am. I'm on my way home now."

"That's my girl. Feel free to travel in business class. You've earned it."

Well, that would certainly beat flying solo across the Atlantic in the storms she'd encountered on the way over here. But there was something on Nui's mind.

"Mama, is there going to be anything for me to do when I get home? I mean, this was more of a formality, you know? There are no more companies for us to buy up."

"Funny you should mention that. You remember your dear older sister, yes?"

"Ryuko, or the other one?"

"Satsuki, of course. Our little runaway has finally come home and has been getting in Ryuko's hair. So much so that she's asked me if she can borrow you, and your particular set of skills."

Nui could have cried with happiness, even if she had just lost a bet. Not only did she have carte blanche to go see her beloved sister, it was with the explicit purpose of murdering the other one? If she was lucky, she could wipe out that annoying little bob-cut girl that had attached herself to Ryuko's side while she was at it. Oh, Honnouji Academy, how she'd missed it.

"Tell Ryuko I'll be there as soon as possible."

"I'll get Hououmaru to pass it on. Oh, and Nui?"

"Oui, maman?"

"Today is the first day of Ryuko's little games. To make a grand enough entrance, you may wish to turn up only on the seventh."

"Got it. Au revoir."

"Au revoir."

With the phone tucked back away, Nui swiftly punched up, the copy vanishing in a cloud of smoke and the briefcase returning to proper hands. Tilting the parasol threw her into a crosswind, whipping her across the sky at double speed, the wind rippling her cheeks as she wasted no time heading to the airport. She did love and live for her mother, but speed was of the essence. Dear sweet Ryuko was waiting for her.

* * *

The garage was a hive of preparations. Blades were granted a loving touch, and honed to the point of slicing an atom in two. Armour was serviced and oiled, grenades strapped on and ammo packs attached within easy reach. Yo-yos were restrung with carbon fibre, cannons made ready to perfect pitch with the tap of a tuning fork. Marika thrilled as she was equipped with new toys and polished to a mirror sheen.

While her companions prepared to go to war against the Life Fibers, Satsuki made ready to meddle with them. In the corner of the room, a small generator chugged along, bring life to Doctor Matoi's old equipment. Sewing machines revved into gear, surrounded by ceiling-hung electrodes, ready to zap any thread that might escape captivity and go for the tailor's throat. As Ira and Nonon equipped themselves for the battles to come, Satsuki readied counter-measure after counter-measure, until the preventatives outweighed the tools of creation. Better to be safe than sorry.

"Are you sure you don't want me to stay behind? It's been a while, but I did take some sewing classes back in middle school. I can keep you from sewing your sleeves into the machine, if nothing else."

"The offer is appreciated, but no. Undermining Ryuko's power base is more important right now. I shall manage alone. Besides, Iori's notes are quite in-depth, almost to the point of being straight instructions for what I need to do. If I come out of this with nothing else, I shall strive to emulate the Four-Star uniform currently worn by Sanageyama. By his own record, he was able to defeat Ryuko at least once.

"Will that be enough? We read the notes. She's awfully attached to Junketsu."

"In the worst-case scenario, it will have to be."

"Do not be afraid to call us back if a situation arises, milady."

"That shall not be necessary. Focus on your targets, and spend no thoughts on me."

"Easier said than done for some of us." Nonon snickered, glancing sideways at Ira. The tall man went bright red under the collar. Satsuki cleared her throat, bringing them back to attention.

"We all have our missions. I pray that you complete yours with as little difficulty as possible, and I shall join you at the Sudden Death Runoffs at the end of the week, wearing a Kamui or not."

Her face softened, just a little.

"Look after yourselves out there, and if you come across Ryuko, do your best to flee. She likely has no interest in bringing you in alive. That cruel mercy is likely reserved only for me."

"Yes ma'am!"

A pair of sharp salutes, and they were off. With a quick check for potential ambushers, the cloaked figures of Ira and Nonon made their way towards Honnouji, the wind at their backs. Some small spark of misguided sentimentality made her stand in the doorway and watch them walk away, until both had shrunk and vanished out of sight, following the main road. Turning on her heel, she returned inside, to the workbench that would be her sole point of purpose for the upcoming week. A fresh cup of tea awaited her, the soft steam a strange comfort amongst hard-angled machines and science fiction nightmares, ready to crackle into life at the first sign of rebellion.

She paused, for just a second, before cracking open the first metal case, a can of Nudist-brand coagulant at the ready. A prize pilfered from under a pile of rags during their reparations. One of many forgotten tools that Doctor Matoi had not been able to flee the fire with.

The lid came away, revealing a writhing mass of blood-red strands, squirming in protest at their collective imprisonment within the cold steel walls. Thousands of Life Fibers, stolen from REVOCS facilities up and down the country. Ten were quickly extracted, the mass flinching at her touch but not rising against it. With the rest sealed shut once again, she laid out her bounty upon the workbench, and began to learn the art of tailoring. Step one: create a One-Star uniform.

**NATURAL ELECTIONS**

**DAY ONE**

There was lightning in the air today. Ryuko could feel it, pumping through her veins. The sky was crimson, clear and cloudless, but she could feel that static rush all the same, the call to battle and a final resolution. At the end of the week Satsuki would be lying at her feet, broken and answering for her crimes. She could wait a week. She'd waited for two years already. And in the meantime, there were other victims to pull apart. The usual mob of mercenaries, killers and thugs had lined up in Honnouji's courtyard, ready to try and claim the bounty on her head set by Nudist Beach. Times was, they used to sneak in with the students and try to assassinate her. But it had been a pain to dispose of the bodies, and so she'd given them their own event instead. A lovely little warm-up before she challenged those of real merit. From either side of her tower, great banners flapped in the wind. Satsuki's face on one, Ira Gamagoori and Nonon Jakuzure on the other. Her own call to violence, with no questions asked cash attached, so long as the bodies were brought in alive. Her heel clacked down at the precipice, her hair bellowing in fiery anticipation at the action about to unfold.

"Honnouji Academy, you know what time it is!"

The roar from the students bounced back at her from every angle, whooping and hollering as they hung from the windows, shaking fists and waving weapons, just as ready as she was. Those that couldn't handle the fire had already fled the proverbial kitchen, hunkering down at home or the Safe Zone. Only Mako remained from that camp, standing behind Ryuko with arms folded neatly behind her back. She'd be gone soon enough, back to hide behind those walls. The thought of going without her for a week almost made her want to call this whole thing off. Almost.

"In this life, there is only power, and those too weak to take it. So reach up, and snatch it from the hands of those above you! The student council once again throws open its challenge to you, the students of Honnouji. Come and have a go, if you think you're hard enough! Desert the feeble bonds of friendship, abandon your family ties. Take all you can for yourself, and give nothing back! The Naturals Elections begins now!"

The words had barely left her lips before she was leaping from the peak, plunging into bloodlust as Junketsu transformed into his true form. In one orchestrated motion, the crowd below pulled out their weapons, and a storm of lead pumped up, trying to knock her out of the sky as she plummeted towards them. She hit the ground running, landing on some unfortunate soul and grinding him into a smear on the dirt. Ducking under a knife swing, she punched clean through the chest of its wielder. As clubs and blades tried in vain to break her skin, she reached up and tore the man in two, straight down the middle. Junketsu bathed in blood, and the Naturals Elections began as they always did.

**DAY TWO**

"You c-c-c-can't do this! My experiments are- "

They refused to let him finish his justifications, Ira silencing the boy with a punch to the guts. The dingy laboratory reeked of cleaning chemicals, a pathetic attempt to hide the crimes the Biology Club had undertaken during Ryuko's rule. Nonon unshackled the last of the girls, easing the unconscious body down from the wall. Her stomach was criss-crossed with a barrage of unnecessary surgical scars, but nothing appeared to have been removed or inserted. She was one of the lucky ones. Others they had found had been stitched together in a variety of gruesome ways, or simply disassembled altogether, still breathing despite their organs being hung outside their bodies, glittering with Life Fiber strings. There was no rhyme or reason to the horrors. In so far as they could tell, the students had been taking people to pieces and putting them back together again, simply because they could. Ira was close to grinding his teeth into a fine paste.

"This degeneracy, committed against their fellow man, and for no end? Disgusting."

"Easy there Toad, you'll do yourself a mischief. At least they're out of the picture now."

"Not soon enough."

"Amen to that. But let's focus. We've got ten girls here, and we need to get them back in the right order. Grab the notes, we'll go from the top."

It was long, slow work. Even with Life Fibers preventing some of the traditional complications associated with open surgery, they were still untrained, reverse engineering from lab notes compiled by madmen. Each action took an hour to complete, with even the simplest tasks triple-checked before they made a move, lest the severing of a string cause a body to collapse into pieces. It was long gone midnight by the time they made their move, heading out into the city proper with nought but the moon to guide their way.

"Hey, Ira."

"Yes?"

"This is more than just Ryuko's bullshit rolling downhill. There's nothing to be gained from what the Biology Club was up to, even beyond getting some sick kicks out of playing God. It wouldn't help them win the Naturals Elections; it wouldn't even help their club survive. I guess… I'm just trying to figure out what the hell inspired them to do this."

"Lady Satsuki told me once that the Life Fibers are predisposed to destruction. Most of the time, they are so short-sighted that an outfit comprised of fifty percent or more will simply start to devour the wearer and finish them quickly, no matter the loss of long-term nutrition. If there was to be some reason found in this nightmare, it would be that the students might have started to become synchronised with that same impulse towards mindless destruction."

"Gods... How the hell are we supposed to fix that?"

"By eradicating each and every string from the face of this planet."

Nonon found herself glad that Ira was contained behind his helmet. The craved face of fury it displayed was likely only a fraction of the anger she could have been party to.

* * *

They never attacked at night. It was the only point of honour that those who attacked the Safe Zone possessed. That was normal. People had to sleep, after all, especially after a long day of fighting everyone else. But a whole day had passed, and while the rest of the Academy had gone about its usual fighting, the Safe Zone had yet to see any action. Not a single bandit team or organised crime group, trying to shake her down to pay her family's loans. It was rubbing Mako up the wrong way something awful, and so she patrolled the walls relentlessly, going around again and again and again and again and-

"Lady Mankanshoku."

A One-Star stood before her, a mug of hot chocolate prepared with extra cream and marshmallows. She took it gratefully and sent him on his way. It wasn't her right to separate students from their families. If it was up to her, she would be alone on these walls, but even her pleas couldn't stop volunteers from taking guard, aiming down with Life Fiber bows and arrows, the red strings glinting even in the darkness. Still, she had to admire that desire to protect, the trust they'd put in her to look after them being repaid both ways. And so she would continue to watch the walls, even though her back ached from Ryuko's punishment and her eyes began to droop. She needed a nap. Ten naps.

Still, even her tired eyes couldn't help but be drawn to the purple aura just below the peak of Honnouji, where she knew the mansion under her name would be a wild hive of debauchery celebrating the rich and famous. Her family had their own way of holing up and helping people during the Naturals Elections.

Mako sighed, a long column of white breath escaping into the night. She wished that she could still call them her family. She could still remember the way her mother had looked down on her when she'd been miserable about her new position, the coldness of her father as he went out day after day without so much as a word, and how her brother had screamed at her when she'd told them about her plans. How quick they'd been to boast her achievements when the Safe Zone had begun to collect the gaze of their upper-class fellows.

She shook her head out to clear away the bad thoughts. Her family had left her, and she'd left them. She didn't need them or the friends inside her head anymore, because Ryuko and her friends in the Safe Zone would support her. She drained the last of her mug, and was about to go back to patrolling when a cry caught her by ear and spun her right back around.

"Incoming! It's the wanted pair! Ira Gamagoori and Nonon Jakuzure!"

She ducked down behind the wall, fingers in her ears and eyes screwed up tight.

"Are they attacking?"

"No ma'am, just approaching!"

"Menacingly?"

"Regularly! They appear to have a trolley with them and- ma'am, it's the missing students!"

She dared peek over the wall, hands cupped about her eyes in makeshift binoculars. She managed to avoid looking at the traitors, seeing only the carriage behind them, upon which a bunch of still bodies lay. Missing girls, taken from the Safe Zone and One-Star areas. She'd been putting up posters for weeks, trying to help the families. Houka had tried his best to help, but whoever had taken them seemed to know exactly where all the cameras in Honnouji city were, snatching the girls from out of sight. She bit down on her lip, retreating behind the wall. If she saw Ira and Nonon, she'd have to acknowledge them. Which meant she'd have to fight them.

Her One-Stars were shouting at them to stay put. Based on the call back, they were honouring that request.

"What should we do ma'am? They claim to have rescued the girls from the Biology Club, and need somewhere safe to leave them."

"Send a team down to meet them and bring the girls inside. If they start getting punchy, call for me. If they don't, let them go."

"Yes ma'am!"

The student didn't seem too bothered that she was hiding behind the wall, immediately putting her words into actions. She waited there, breath held, hoping and not hoping for a fight to kick off. She wasn't fulfilling the role Ryuko wanted of her. She would have wanted Mako down there, kicking butts and taking names, bringing both of them before the throne and then engaging in some kisses. But if what they said was true, then wouldn't starting a fight be a really bad thing to do? Betraying the trust of a patient that was going to skip out on the bill was one thing. Shaking down the guy that brought them into the clinic was another thing altogether.

The gate creaked open, bootsteps tromping out to meet the Life Fiber Hunters. There was a quick exchange of dialogue, and a rattle of wheels, before the gate slammed closed once more. Already, student nurses and proper doctors were swarming the trolley, one of them clutching a pack of weathered papers as they brought the trolley further into protection. Mako dared another peek out into the slums, catching the retreating backs of Satsuki's underlings vanishing into the night. She bounced up in one smooth motion, hanging over the edge of the wall.

"Thank you!"

They stilled, for just a second, before continuing on their way. Mako turned back to the guards, her tiredness suddenly obliterated.

"No-one tell Ryu – Lady Ryuko about this, okay?"

"Yes ma'am!"

And so the night went on.

**DAY THREE**

Honnouji Academy tore itself to pieces on thirteen separate monitors, a bloody reality show all for the joy of Maiko. From within the walls of her stately mansion, she could watch the riff-raff fight over nothing, while she protected her position and aimed even higher. The traps surrounding her home kept the barbarian hordes away nicely, spring-loaded plates and poison darts equally as effective in slapping down One-Star nobodies. But despite the glamorous highs she'd reached, there was still time in life for the simple things. Instant ramen was food for queens and peasants alike, the warm scent of broth filling her command centre as she sat and watched, following Ryuko from screen to screen.

There had to be a weakness there. Going after Mankanshoku wasn't good enough, it would only infuriate Honnouji's queen, and the angrier she got, the harder she fought. She wondered if Ryuko knew that her current body count wasn't nearly as high as it had been in the halcyon days of the early elections. These days, she ripped a few outsiders in half and let the rest run away, and spent the rest of her time randomly gut-checking club presidents to see if they could step to her level, only to let them go once they'd passed out. Hardly on the level of mass arson she used to aspire to.

So, was that the key? Let her continue her little love-in with the idiot and hope she calmed down enough to the point where she simply underestimated her opponent in a fight? Unlikely. Maiko knew more than anyone that Ryuko could turn her fury on like a tap, pouring out the madness to drown whoever she faced in battle. No, if there was to be a way for Maiko to take the crown of Honnouji, it would have to be in eliminating Junkestu. Sadly, she'd been unable to plant any drones within Ryuko's mansion – someone or thing kept finding them before they could start sending footage back. But one day, she'd find the time to strike. Kamui and wearer couldn't possibly be in contact at all hours of the day. She'd find the window of her opportunity, and then, she would plan, until every angle was covered. And when Ryuko Kiryuin expected it the least, she would be torn from grace, stripped of her position, powerless and afraid in a world that would belong to Maiko Ogure.

Strength. Power. Prestige. Money. All of it would be hers, in time. You had to reach for the highest peak, or else why even bother to climb the mountain? One day, they'd all be under her completely, and the mindless hordes would pray for a world in which they could think to challenge her with their flailing hands and savagery.

* * *

"How are things going?"

"As well as can be expected. I'm lying low as usual. Our unhappy sniper is off doing his usual thing."

"Hunting Satsuki? Even with his implants…"

"I know, I told him. Damned fool never listens to me."

"And the other sister?"

"Operation Grind 'N' Bump is ready Doctor. Either way this turns out, Ryuko Kiryuin won't be on the throne of Honnouji when this is all over."

**DAY FOUR**

"Unsurprisingly, your scholarships here are revoked. Your details have been handed into the authorities, and if you aren't out of Honnouji within the day, I will be taking care of you myself. Understood? Good, now get off the line. You should be ashamed of yourselves."

He damn near threw the phone back into its cradle, his other hand already scribbling down notes for the installation of more cameras. Somehow, one of the science clubs under his purview had gotten ahold of the surveillance plans for Honno City, and had spread details of every blind spot in the city to the rest of their compatriots. The Biology Club had taken it upon themselves to utilise the weakness in his data to drag students into dark alleys and carry them off, carrying out deprived experiments on living bodies. According to Mankanshoku's doctors, they would survive, but the quality of life that came from having Life Fibers inserted into them, not to mention the trauma from being sewn to one another, was tenebrous at best. This would be a situation best suited for Ryuko, with her unique constitution allowing her to suck up the parasitic little strings, but she was far and away, lost in the flow of battle. And even if she wasn't, it was unlikely that she'd answer a request to help her fellow man anyway.

"Hold steady Houka. Things will get better. You'll see."

**SEWING CLUB PRESIDENT – SHIRO IORI**

Shiro was buried under a mountain of new data, the arms on the back of his uniform in constant motion as they analysed, tested and recreated, all without him leaving his seat. This Naturals Elections had seen a dramatic uptick in the number of Two-Star students losing their uniforms. Ira's work, most likely. A quick comparison of the clubs targeted showed them to be the ones helmed by students most likely to support Ryuko, come hell or high water. The weaponry used was pretty close to the tactics favoured by Nudists, packed bursts of needles severing the threads to neutralise the power increase and tear the uniform to pieces. Naturally, he'd seen the results and immediately thrown himself into his work, finding yet more ways to improve the design.

"I applaud your optimism, but all of this is for nothing if Ryuko isn't shifted. And I simply don't have the data to know if Satsuki can match her on the field. I don't even have old results to make a simulation off of, since we never saw the two of them fight one another. I simply… don't like this at all."

There was a heavy sensation on his shoulder, one of the mechanical tendrils patting him stiffly.

"Keep the faith. It's Satsuki we're talking about. I've seen that girl do things that defy what should be possible. And she'll do it again."

The tendril retreated, diving back into work. With Shiro's attentions diverted, Houka went back to his emails, to the message sitting plainly at the top, still unread.

"I hope you're right Shiro. I really do."

* * *

She could have taken a break. She should have taken a break. Nonon would have wanted her to take a break. Stand up, breathe, take a short walk, anything but keep throwing herself against the wall. But she could not stop, not with this new blueprint in hand. One last unintentional present from the doctor. The sewing machine revved into life once more, as Satsuki ignored her aching eyes and stiff back, and did what was needed once more.

**DAY FIVE**

The bodies were piling up in the streets, smoking imprints of a kendo blade still sizzling from where Uzu kept striking them down. His own clubs had risen up against him in force, trying to tear the Four-Star uniform from his back. Ping-Pong and tennis balls battered him from all angles, while boxers and baseballers rushed him down. The constant fray had him blocking every direction, the sports clubs perfectly aware that they had to keep him on the defensive or lose the war entirely. Every time a gap presented itself, another member of their team would drop, knocked out in a single blow. And there were more and more gaps the longer the fight kept going. In the end, there was only the Two-Stars, sweating and ragged for breath while he danced between them. A few key swings, and they crumpled as well.

The Four-Star uniform shut down, Uzu stepping out of the steam with not a hair out of place.

"Good game everyone. Thanks for indulging me."

"No… problem… boss." One of the Two-Stars wheezed, eased to his feet by a helping hand. Achingly, the sports clubs were given life again. Orange slices and water were ready on hand, as custom dictated.

"So, I gotta ask." Omiko threw out. "You go toe-to-toe with Lady Kiryuin on the regular. What made you think we'd be able to put you through the wringer?"

Uzu swirled the sports bottle, watching the liquid splash up against the sides.

"Guess I just wanted to see what it was like on the other side."

The Club Presidents exchanged silent looks. After a second, Jun Chino, the Wrestling Club President, cleared his throat awkwardly.

"Hey, boss. If you ever get a little arson-y, give us a heads-up first, okay? We'll smack you outta it."

"Hang on, didn't you go down first?"

"I wasn't trying today, alright! Gotta save my strength for the title matches!"

"Speaking of which, it looks like we've got company."

Omiko's mono-lens twitched, scoping out a pack of marching students coming over the hill. The ground began to vibrate with the opening notes of _Granada_.

"Music nerds."

"They're trying to get the jump on us!"

"They think we're weak!"

"Permission to engage sir?"

"As you please. It's a Naturals Elections, after all."

Beams of Life Fiber enhanced music were already blasting down towards them, carving up the pavement with burning pink light. The assumed insult burned through the assembled sports clubs, rushing up to meet the newcomers in kind. The marks from Uzu's strikes were still sizzling on their faces but the old injuries did nothing to slow them down, both sides crashing together in an explosion of horns and sports chants. Far below and long forgotten, Uzu sat and watched, chewing his orange slices and dwelling on the nature of power.

**DAY SIX**

Ladders slapped up against the walls of the Safe Zone, musical cannons punching holes into the gates. A tidal wave of students surged forward, chambering over themselves in order to be the first one ripping and tearing on the walls. Life Fiber arrows washed out in synchronised pulses at Mako's command, but there were so many students, supported by tight-knit groups of thugs, gangsters, and crooks, all providing dirty muscle that covered the places Mako couldn't be. Activating her uniform was an idea, but it was always so exhausting when she went all out, so that had to be a super last-minute plan.

There was a sudden boom, and the ground erupted in a storm of fire, ripping her from her current brawl. Shaking her dizziness away, she scrambled to her feet, the blackened bodies of those she had just been fighting against scattered all around her. Uniform still smouldering, she panned back and forth, looking for the new threat. Another barrage came blazing towards her, shells trying to go through her to get to the wall. She punched one into another, shielding her eyes from the blowback of dust and fire that followed in the ensuing explosion. The other shots landed true against the walls, shaking her reserves off their feet. Precious defences lost. Scanning the crowd, she found them.

Five heavy tanks, Japanese models, locked their turrets straight her and let loose with another burst of fire. Once again, the shots sent her way were denied. Once again, the ones that struck the wall tore strips away, the town behind visible in fragments.

"Since when is there a Tankery Club?" One of her One-Stars complained as she shook the soot away.

"Must be one of Uzu's. Or I signed off on it without thinking. Either or."

The girl leading the tank pack had one of those annoying noble laughs, the kind that went 'oh-oh-oh-oh!' With an eyepatch and full military assemble made from Life Fibers feeding into the metal, she was as much a part of her vehicle as the treads and guns were.

**TANKERY CLUB PRESIDENT – NISHIZUMI KOJIMA**

"Well, well, well Mankanshoku, it seems today is finally the day you fall! Maybe if you take off that false uniform and beg us for mercy, we'll let you run away crying instead of giving you what you actually deserve."

"Hey, who died and made you queen?"

A stray burst of gunfire wiped out that bit of dissent from the peanut galley in short order. Mako winced, but took the chance to get to her feet, dusting her uniform clean.

"What, you guys want to go home early? I mean, technically it's the holidays, so you should make the most out of your free time, but giving up isn't a good way to get what you want, you know? Giving up on your plans is the best way to have regrets, and that's no good!"

"I… you do know we want you dead, right?"

"Yeah, I know. I was just distracting you."

She hammered the ground with both fists, walls of earth rising up to throw the army about. Knocked skew-whiff and nearly tipping over, Nishizumi barked something sharp and curse-filled into a radio. Seconds later, the rip of propellers echoed across the battlefield as a ram-shackle imitation of a Second World War bomber plane entered the fray, metal plates held together with Life Fibers and the Aeronautics Club President's helmet and googles peeking out from the underside, scanning the battlefield for the best place to drop its explosive package.

**AERONAUTICS CLUB PRESIDENT – REI ITSUMI**

The hatch opened up. Stark clear against the blood-red sky, the black blot plummeted towards earth, promising an end to the Safe Zone. Mako's hands were at her uniform, ready to transform, but as she took her pose, a jagged white flash ripped through the smoky air, and came crashing down as human lightning. It hit the ground, each and every combatant showered in dirt from the impact, the blast zone lost in the haze. No-one moved, the bomb forgotten. In their heart of hearts, they already knew what had happened to it. Worse still, they knew what was coming. High heels clacked, and a phantom chill ran down the back of every man and woman in attendance.

Ryuko strode from the smoking crater, the bomb impaled on her right arm and the remains of an engine block under the other. Her entrance was heralded by the scream of metal as the dream of the Aeronautics Club fell to earth, its unexpected landing lighting up the tyrant of Honnouji with raw fire and the stink of burning petrol. The flaming wreckage filled in the gap of the Safe Zone's wall quite nicely.

"A horde of warriors, trying crack open heaven and take everything from themselves. No-Stars, One-Stars, Two-Stars, and every kind of low-level scum working together to ruin a dream. There's tanks and planes and fire and explosions and war from wall to wall!"

She breathed in deeply, savouring the smell of blood and fire on the wind.

"I gotta say Mako. You know how to throw one hell of a party."

The smile wasn't a creepy one. Mako had seen all of Ryuko's creepy smiles. The angry ones, the crazy ones, the perverted ones. This one was surprisingly warm, and comforting. On anyone else, it might even have been heroic.

She flicked her arms out, and bomb and engine block went spinning off into the tank cavalry, wiping them out in a tremendous explosion. Members of the Tankery Club were sent flying, stripped of their uniforms but miraculously unharmed otherwise.

"Ah shoot, I got rid of the coolest stuff too quickly. Well, it's not like there isn't enough of you to entertain me. And today's your lucky day, you pigs in human clothing! I know Mako likes to keep her fun rated PG, so I'm not gonna kill a single one of you, no matter how much you deserve it!"

"This is just favouritism!" Some brave soul accused.

"Yeah, what happened to standing alone?"

"Desert the feeble bonds of friendship, abandon your family ties. That's what you said! So why are you helping her?"

Ryuko simply shrugged.

"If you don't like it, take my place and pick your own favourites. That's the whole point of this, don't you know?"

She got her wish. A beat of anger rippled through the crowd. The injured rose to their feet, forgetting their wounds. Those with tactical minds began corralling the hordes, pointing them forward in defiance. Students of every rank understood once another and charged, united in common cause. A thousand superpowered students with organised crime support against one teenaged girl in her favourite outfit. It wasn't even a remotely fair fight. Nevertheless, Mako threw herself into the fray as well, because Ryuko needed someone watching her back. If nothing else, the sweet smile as they stood and fought together was proof of that.

**DAY SEVEN**

Satsuki stood alone, which was to be expected. She'd turned up to the location an hour ahead of time after all. Ira and Nonon were likely still completing the last of their tasks, and so they were unlikely to get tangled up in whatever plan had her in its sights. She'd caught the feeling of being watched the second she'd disabled the guards and walked straight up Honnouji's main road, and it had followed her all the way up to this point.

The city was as Ira had described, all those months ago. Wounded, directionless, lashing out blindly in all directions. A hot bed for the destructive tempers of the Life Fibers. She had been met by a horde of One-Star students as she'd made her way up, ravenous, foaming at the mouth in their attempts to pull her down and slaughter her. For all their fury, they had fallen just the same – a pack of mindless animals dropped by a single swing. It had been a common theme as she'd walked. Two-Star students rode about like warlords, clashing against their fellow students purely for sport. No drive to improve, merely the brawl. Worthless. There were a great many things that needed correcting here.

There was a glint of sun in her eyes, and she drew her sword.

The bullet came away in two, the shards sinking into the wall behind her. This was of no concern to her, already moving towards the sniper's location. Five more shots followed as she made her way up the road, and all five deflected. The building was trapped of course, a labyrinth of mines and tripwires that erupted all around her as she ran through them, protected by her sleeves as she made her way up. The stairs fell away under her, but she leapt higher to clear them. Each floor was steely death, but no number of reanimated animals and robotics could dull her blade as she hacked through them. Finally, she made it to the roof, only to find it bare. She walked to the edge, and looked down to see her challenger waving a remote at her.

The building exploded seconds after she leapt onto its neighbour. That too went up in flames, and the next two after that as she descended into an alleyway lined with bear traps, snapping up to try and catch her ankles as she flipped back out into the light. He was waiting for her where she'd started. The man was smothered in black combat gear, save for the red crest of his mohawk and what little tanned skin he showed. Steely eyes ran her down as she approached.

"Better luck next time."

"Hmph. Luck seems to be all we have against you Kiryuins these days."

**NUDIST AGENT –** **TSUMUGU KINAGASE**

"Should I take this as a serious assassination attempt then, or a mere stab at avenging wounded pride?"

"Take it how you will. It makes no difference to me."

He made the first move, claws flicking out to jab at her side. Quick bursts of speed and skill, designed to wear her down and keep him out of her range. But not good enough to fully keep her at bay as she weathered Sewing Machinegun rounds and locked Bakuzan-Prime's blade into place between his fingers. He might have even been strong enough to lodge her, had he not had to leap away to avoid the roaring laser beam crying Hallelujah. But that left him between Satsuki and a hard place, Ira cracking his knuckles as he barred the way out.

"If this is the best Nudist Beach has to offer, then my offer still stands. The Rending Scissors should be handed to someone who can actually make use of them."

"If that is still how you think, then I'm afraid I've got two pieces of information for you. One, a Kiryuin will be dead by the end of today. Two, a Nudist always hides something up his sleeve."

He'd vanished into the white smoke before the trio could make a move. But his eyes were off Satsuki, and that good enough for her as Ira grumbled and Nonon outright complained about Nudists.

"I trust everything has been taken care of?"

"More or less. We lost a day saving some students from the worst Honnouji has to offer. The few names we were unable to take out likely won't be affecting the outcome of the Sudden Death Runoff. A couple that might have swung things were wiped out by Ryuko herself."

"Acceptable."

"Yeah, you know what's not acceptable? Those bags under your eyes. Have you taken a single break over the last week?"

"I rested when necessary. The work was quite complex, even by my generous estimates."

"Which means you took the bare minimum of four hours sleep each night, right?"

"Correct."

"Yeah, that's not nearly enough. Come on, let's find you a place to lie down."

"Nonon, I'm fine."

"We have four hours until we have to be at the peak. A nap is not going to kill you. Toad, don't just stand there shuffling your feet, tell her how awful she looks!"

Both girls looked up to him. There was a slow shifting of metal plates as Ira averted his gaze.

"It would be best for all of us… to be at our maximum potential going into today's events."

Satsuki closed her eyes and sighed. The cost having friends instead of underlings was that you had to take their complaints into account from time to time. A worthwhile trade, however frustrating it might be.

"Fine, fine. But do not let me rest for long. An hour, at most."

They took shelter in an abandoned building, a pair of noise-cancelling headphones planted upon her ears to shut out the whirlwind of conflict that raged all around them. With Ira standing watch and Nonon tucking blankets around her like an old mother hen, it almost felt homely. If she unfocused her eyes, she could almost see Soroi pottering about, dusting the debris. She hoped Ryuko had been kind to him, if no-one else.

Honnouji's peak blared the time out across the city in large red numbers. Get there by twelve or lose your chance. Even now, students and thugs lined the streets, fighting for their lives with each step they struggled towards the top. They had four hours to spare and an entire city that would try to make them pay for their ascendancy in blood. Four hours until they would be fighting for their rightful places. Four hours to either save or damn the world. Four hours until she came face-to-face with a sister she had not seen in years. Four hours until she had to draw blood from her in combat.

Satsuki's hand tightened on Bakuzan-Prime, lying by her side. She would not fail. Not now nor from one moment on. Nudists, students and REVOCS alike could come for her, but she would make right by the day's end. But for now, Nonon was glaring at her, and the week's work had been awfully draining. The mere act of lying down had completely sapped the strength from her bones, and made her keenly aware of all the little teeth chewing at her flesh. She had created a solution, not an ally.

The world faded into darkness all too quickly, and she slipped into a dreamless slumber.


	8. Top of the World

Chapter 8: Top of the World

**HONNOUJI SLUMS – ONE YEAR AGO**

_"I refuse to mute myself and remain a bystander any longer, Ryuko Kiryuin!"_

_It had taken a year for Ryuko to wear him down. He recognised that she would be a problem child, a spoiled corporate princess with no concept of refusal; except her own to his demands for civility. He knew she had broken her heart waiting on a sister that had vanished from the face of the Earth, a pain he knew just as sharply in Satsuki's absence. He knew she had no patience for the workload that Honnouji demanded of her. He had given her space; he had allowed her ample time to adjust. He had given her periods in which to unleash Junketsu's power upon himself and the rest of the Elite Three to vent her anger, as much as it displeased him to take damage that he could not use to improve himself in discipline. He had even stood back and approved her own ideas to motivate the students of Honnouji with an academy-wide brawl for positions and pride, even as she repeated them again and again without concern for those taking part in the first place. But this was too much._

_The northern slums of Honnouji burned around them, put to the torch the power he had helped motivate. Junketsu was soaked to the arm, drenched in the blood of former No-Star students and their families, of common people who took refuge when they were turfed out of Tokyo. Ryuko had set their homes alight to make them run, waiting for them in streets. She had torn them down one by one with clawed fingers, deaf to cries for mercy and surrender. The remnants of those people lay all about them now, thousands who thought they had a place to call home, thousands he could not protect. The last vestiges of those poor souls were vanishing into cloth, dark red fading into copper, then rapidly into pink before it was drained completely, devoured by the pure-white monster that she wore unblinkingly._

_Ryuko rose from the withered husk that had been Junketsu's last meal. She did not face him for a moment, almost as though she intended to ignore him. But she faced him in the end, fixing eyes as hollow and lifeless as that husk upon him. When she finally spoke, her voice never rose from monotone._

_"Funny. That's funny, isn't it Junketsu? He says he's going to speak up. I can't ever remember a time when he was quiet. Do this paperwork Ryuko. Feet off the desk Ryuko. Stop murdering the No-Stars Ryuko."_

_She had never been fully human, that much Ira knew. Satsuki had explained that quite well. But he had always held onto hopes that she was human enough, that a common core of decency lay under that metaphorical spool of thread. Not once in all these months of service could he have imagined the utter void he was faced with. A creature of mass murder that didn't even blink away the gore from where it caked her eyes. An unfeeling, uncaring fiend that couldn't be reasoned with as it demolished cities. A monster that had to be destroyed. He apologised to the No-Stars that had lived not half an hour earlier for his failures, and to Satsuki for the trespass he had to commit. He called upon the power that ruled Honnouji, so that it would never be turned against the people again._

**THREE STAR GOKU UNIFORM – SHACKLE REGALIA**

_It would not be as the battles that he had granted her before. He turned his whips upon himself in a second, barely feeling their bite as he invoked his true form right from the offset._

**THREE STAR GOKU UNIFORM – SCOURGE REGALIA**

_He never saw the hit that ripped the subtitles in two. Ryuko's arm was buried deep within his uniform, a viperous parasite that ripped apart his torso in one clean strike as she pulled up, splitting the source of his strength into halves and carving a terrible pain into him from gut to throat. He was only barely aware of the beating that followed. Stomps to the head, talons peeling flesh away in strings, heavy-handed fists pummelling the softer organs. Ryuko wanted him dead, but not out of whatever null malice she had committed before. She wanted him broken. She wanted him to bleed out, aware of his powerlessness in the face of true strength._

_The last thing he recalled was the armoured boot to the nose that rendered him unconscious, and when he woke next it was high above Honnouji, swinging about like an old, abused doll as Ryuko gestured him at the silent crowds below. The ringing in his ears dulled her words, but there was no mistaking the thunder and fury in her tones as she wound back and threw him from the mountain's peak. The sky was so darkly red as his weightless body fell through each district in a great arc, not coming to a stop until he crashed into the slums once more._

* * *

"You let me sleep for too long."

"And you look much better for it. You're welcome."

Satsuki sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose. Ira would have complained about the audacity of his companion's words and deeds towards his lady, but the fact of the matter was that Satsuki did look rather rejuvenated after her break. There was a touch of colour in her cheeks and less baggage around her eyes as she took up vantage beside him. The clock hanging from Honnouji's lapel decreed that there was but an hour to go before the gates slammed shut and the Sudden Death Runoffs began.

"How has the watch been?"

A great mass of bodies crushed up against one another as the horde vaingloriously battled to make it to the peak. There was no one major conflict, only dozens of smaller battles locked together in a greater tide of war as the students raged against the ascendancy of their fellows. Take one step forward, and three of their peers would grab them and dash them to the ground, with a few good kicks to the ribs for their troubles. Even Two-Star students weren't immune, lost in the dogpile and dragged down like drowning sailors, feebly grasping at the goal before vanishing under the waves of humanity. A pile of the exhausted and beaten had formed at the foot of the hill, those bereft of the strength to even stand up and go home.

"As it was before you rested. The ranks have thinned, but not nearly enough for us to simply walk through. Like crabs in a bucket, they are locked up, not moving forward but only aiming to tear each other down. It will be easy enough to clear a path. The Elite Four have already passed by. Ogure and Inumuta flew over the crowd, Sanageyama and Mankanshoku tore through it. They are all awaiting us at the top."

The crimson sky pulsed with bloodlust. He could feel it in his chest, a heavy sensation of his lungs being coated in lead. Ryuko was standing on high, watching the world tear itself apart for her amusement, he just knew it. No matter. Justice was soon to be served.

"Then let us not keep them waiting. Is everyone ready?"

"Yes ma'am!"

They walked up the main road slowly, letting the broken students be the first to bear witness to the return of Honnouji's true queen. They could do little more than lift their heads and raise their voices, but the dull whispers carried the same thoughts. Recognition of what was to come, as pure white light graced them. The battle on the hill began to slow to a crawl from the lower echelons upwards as fights stopped and heads turned, looking to the bottom and the three figures that stood there. The three figures that Ryuko was offering absurd bounties on. No-one moved, but the air became filled with the hissing whispers of the same conversation, repeated a thousand times over as the students came to new understanding. And then, as one, they turned about, fixing their gaze not at the peak, but at the grander prize standing below them. Satsuki drew breath, glaring them all down.

"Students of Honnouji! This short-sighted age of pointless violence has come to an end! Stand aside or join those you have already discarded at the foot of this hill!"

An avalanche of bodies came tumbling down towards them, hands outstretched to wring their necks. One-Star students with blank eyes and foam in their teeth came hurtling at them, lost in the madness of the fight. Ira and Nonon took the lead, the boltgun loaded and the bass cannon primed. Without a command they opened up, rapid-fire grenades of needles ripping through the first rank before the students were even halfway down. When Ira stepped back to reload Nonon stepped forward, the mechanical cannon on her shoulder thrice the size of its wielder not so much as wobbling a jot as she took the lead and aimed it as the next wave. The ground shook as blindingly pink light built up from within, let roaring out mere seconds later with a deep-throated thud of 'Hallelujah' that reverberated through the body as the pink light spilled forth, a thick whip of a laser beam that curled across the ranks, bursting every uniform the incandescence graced with its touch.

Unconscious bodies tumbled past them in droves, students stripped of the strength and will to fight as they advanced. As the smoking bass cannon wound down, Two-Star students flooded into the space left behind, the rock-hard chest of the Boxing Club President bouncing Ira's shots back at the party. With a thunderous cry, he brought an iron-hard fist down on Nonon, only to be turned away at the tap of Bakuzan-Prime. A swift cut ripped his uniform in two as Satsuki took the lead, quick flashes of the black blade forcing the battle to march to its tempo as it slipped in and out of the sheath in double-time, each Iaido-style cut a dead-centre hit that tore out the heart of each and every uniform it danced across. By the time they were halfway up the hill the pile of bodies at the bottom exceeded the numbers left standing, and weaker students were running at them just to get away faster.

A brave few blocked entrance to the arena, their loyalty repaid with the lightning-fast shred of cloth scattered into a thousand cuts. Would-be gladiators and spectators alike held their breath as the trio joined those already in attendance. A motley crew of battle-hardened students awaited them, broken up into little cliques. Those under the sports club banner gathered about Sanageyama, those of the sciences formed a wall near Inumuta. Ogure sat upon a throne of willing bodies, sceptre sat neatly in her lap. Mankanshoku stood apart from the crowd, having made it up to the stands to sign autographs for those standing in small pen allocated to No-Star accommodation. Each and every person in the arena was awash in crimson, the sickly red light pulsing out from the highest point of Honnouji dyeing everything in Ryuko's colours. The tyrant of Honnouji looked down upon all, glaring daggers at her sister.

All at once, a great and terrible pressure gripped the hearts not only of the crowd, but those in the pit. With Ryuko's teeth bared and Satsuki's hand upon the hilt of her sword, it almost seemed like the whole event could drop what little decorum there was, erupting only into an explosion of violence. The assembled students shifted, not one of them having thoughts of attacking their fellow students, not just yet. Not when the outsiders stood so brazenly before them, challenging their queen. On the edges of the arena, each member of the Elite Four stayed back in their own way, measuring the invisible tug-of-war enacted by the members of the Kiryuin clan, preparing themselves for a command.

Ryuko blinked first, breaking eye contact to look upon the arena. To look upon the hill reaching all the way down her city, where defeated students were only just now recovering from Satsuki and her retinue, limping off home to lick their wounds.

"Well, this is everyone we're going to get. Thanks a lot, bitch. Guess we'll start round one."

The gate slammed closed; the earth began to rumble. Students scattered as a massive platform broke free of the dust, creaking upwards with eight smaller friends in tow, spread out in an octagon pattern about the main plate. Each supporting pillar burst out with wicked spikes at all angles, ready to slice open anyone who might dare climb them.

"For those of you new to this, cause you might have been, I dunno, whoring it up around Europe or some such, here's how it works. Make it to the top, and be the last one standing on each of these pillars. That'll determine our top eight bracket, who'll proceed to fight one another to see who gets to stay on the council. Now, obviously our beloved Elite Four will each be claiming a pillar for themselves, so I recommend you all dogpile onto the new girls and our former disciplinary chair, because fuck them in particular. I'm not saying that there's any special reward for doing them in, but there is a massive bounty on each of their heads. You make the call."

The cast-iron throne hung at the precipice, Soroi standing attentively by its side as Ryuko took her seat.

"You may all begin killing one other in three… two… one… get to it!"

The final word was barely out of her mouth before the students had launched themselves at the trio, the courtyard descending into complete bedlam as a hundred bodies came crashing down upon the three outsiders. Free of the maddening crowd, the Elite Four ascended in record time, taking their places upon four of the eight pillars without so much as a drop of sweat to mar them.

A flicker of pink burst out from the melee, Nonon swinging free with her yo-yo wrapped around a pillar spike. A bunch of students broke away, chasing after her and throwing themselves into the climb, uncaring of how their hands bled as they impaled themselves to reach greater heights. But she was far and away, pulling herself from peak to peak with choice swings to higher ground, and by the time the first of them were halfway up, she was already stood upon the peak, pulling out defences for when the leaders reached her.

Satsuki and Ira made the tide of battle their own. As students broke upon his armoured chest, Satsuki would nip in to put them down. At the first lull in the battle, Ira crouched down, hands cupped together in practised motion. Not looking back, Satsuki leapt upon the prepared platform and was launched as Ira threw her skyward, rocketing past the few who had ignored Ryuko's ideas and gone straight for the climb. A simple forward flip landed her neatly in the centre of an empty pillar. The adjacent pillar was quickly filled as well, a cloaked figure finding a place. Not a second after, he was at the edge, pouring burning oil on the students vaingloriously trying to reach him.

Those not suddenly scrubbing liquid pain away piled onto the mass frame of Ira, trying to bring him down to their level. The power fist crackled white lightning through the ranks, but there were ever-more students throwing themselves at him. Thin hands twisted at the helmet, pulled at the back of the legs, weighed the other arm down and pushed, metal plates creaking under the sheer weight of bodies. Servos groaned with each strained step forwards as he pushed through a sea of fists, aiming for the last free pillar, already beset by students trying to claim the last available place.

Challengers had their fingers at the edge of Nonon's pillar, only to be sent tumbling from on high as mechanical fangs chomped down. Marika ran interference as Nonon went for the heavy artillery. Ira's path was eased as the blindingly pink beam carved up the crowd, the earth glowing with dull lustre before erupting into pillars of flame that sent students flying every which way. A pale hand found its way to the last free pillar, but just as the student was to pull himself over the cusp, a thin azure blade of energy ripped his back open. As he spilled backwards, Satsuki leapt from her station, spring-boarding off his falling form and took his place, cutting down the next five students that thought themselves looking at a free ride.

"Hurry yourself Ira!"

"Yeah, pick up the pace Toad!" Nonon chimed in, ducking under a heavy-handed swing of a student that had made it to her level and planting a knee firmly into his groin. Bodies kept falling as Ira cast the last of his parasites aside, grabbing the pillar Satsuki had abandoned and hauling himself up in broad stokes, clearing tens of feet with each surge upwards.

The two sword wielders had identical ideas. Ira was two-thirds of the way up when Satsuki and Uzu threw themselves across the gap, clashing in the middle of the platform, Bakuzan-Prime holding strong against a kendo blade.

"Great minds think alike, it would seem."

"Well, you've been interfering left right and centre. Wouldn't be fair if I didn't give you a hard time as well."

Swords flew thick and fast, the arena screaming all around them as they stepped to one another, the platform quivering with every solid clash of blades. Not one attack slipped or missed on either side, neither one giving space to the other until Uzu pushed in hard against Satsuki's wrist, forcing her to back up or risk it breaking. They came apart, sword stances barely wavering as they went in for the second round.

"Uzu."

The word was soft-spoken, yet it froze the swordsman in his tracks, immediately ducking down to one knee, straight under Satsuki's attack. Ryuko was pointing over his shoulder, to the emerging form of Ira Gamagoori, pulling himself up onto the platform.

"Nice try, but maybe actually go after the bastard next time."

"Sorry ma'am. I got too into it."

Ryuko shrugged, supremely listless.

"Get back to your pillar. You too Satsuki, it's not like any of those losers are going to make a difference now that you're all up here."

Uzu left them behind with a mock-salute, cleanly leaping back to his former pillar. Ira and Satsuki shared a nod, and she too took up an empty space. Ryuko's cold gaze fell upon those below, students already dropping to their hands and knees, seeking mercy in the dirt.

"And to anyone who's not on top… you should all be fucking ashamed of yourselves. I was expecting one of them to make it through, maybe two. But all three? Pathetic."

The gates creaked open once more, the red sky darkening to a deeper shade of blood.

"You've all got super-max detention. Get out of my sight. You don't have to go home, but get the fuck away from here."

They trudged out. The slow, the exhausted, the broken, not one of them looking back as they exited the arena. Barely shifting in her seat, Ryuko reached into a box produced by Soroi, rummaging around until she retrieved two scraps of paper. The gates slammed closed as she straightened a little on her throne.

"Right then, top eight begins. And for our first match, we're resolving an awkward bit of double-booking. It's the battle for the Disciplinary Chair, right off the bat! Maiko Ogure vs Ira Gamagoori!"

Bridges shot out, connecting pillars to the main stage. Maiko transformed, but her usual swagger was absent as she took small steps across. Ira looked across the gap, locking eyes with Satsuki.

"I shall not fail you again."

"You have yet to fail me once."

Armour ground and clanked as Ira strode across the bridge, Maiko looking increasingly unnerved as he made his way to face her. She had every right to fear him, speedbump in the road to redemption that she was.

It was near enough a year since the day Ryuko had expelled him. He had awoken in the sewers of Honnouji with his wounds sewn up and bandaged, dressed in plain travelling clothes that covered up his shame as he limped out a hidden passage with his tail between his legs and tears in his eyes. A year since he had been thrown from the peak of Honnouji. The wounds had healed, but the dark complexation of his father was permanently scarred, a long, jagged brand of pale flesh along his front and a hundred more carved into his back. They had ached from the day he had left and every day until he had made it home. They had ached when he found Satsuki Kiryuin and begged for her forgiveness. They had ached through every fight with Nudists and COVERS, and now, standing on Ryuko's stage, it felt like they might open up again in remembrance as he fell under her evil gaze. Boltgun loaded, he took up a firing stance, ready for the call to action. Maiko swung back, sceptre hanging low.

Ryuko barked out an insult, and the fight was on.

A sweep of the sceptre, and already the space between them was littered with obstacles. Bright orange mines tittered across the ground, rolling between the gaps in the wide circles covered by sparking electric glyphs. Maiko danced over them freely, throwing out barrage after barrage of little energy bullets that hissed against his armour, while every shot he gave in return was swept away by the flurry of purple coattails. The ranged battle was already lost – he was going to have to rip her uniform off himself. But of course, she already knew that, leaping away with a bright orange light swelling at the tip of her weapon.

"Come on Gamagoori! Advance, if you dare!"

He sent shots scattering through the glyphs, blasting two of them to pieces. Mines erupted about his feet as he ran through, collecting scorched marks on his armour as the burning sphere at the tip of Maiko's staff grew to full size and was let loose, slowly drifting towards him. Boltgun rounds vanished beneath the flames ineffectually, but so slowly it moved that he was able to dash past it as it came at him, unleashing another burst of gunfire at Maiko as she stepped away, throwing down more glyphs and a second, pale blue fireball sitting right in front of her.

"You cannot run forever, Maiko Ogure. Justice will catch up to you."

"I don't need to. I've already set you up."

His armour warned him of the incoming impact too late, a sudden blast catching him from behind, unpreparedness knocking him into one of the glyphs. Lightning crackled through his system, and even with his helmet suddenly offline he could spot the tip of another orange fireball building behind Maiko's fortress of magical obstacles. The first one must have come back around and hit him in the back. The second fireball was drifting towards him now, and the crowd was booing heavily. Whether it was directed at him or Maiko he couldn't say. More of those silvery energy shots were coming his way now, rattling off his armour as he marched forward, systems restarting automatically. Enough of this game of cat and mouse.

The fireball came at him, so burning bright that it was if he were standing in the middle of a desert in middle of the day. He locked in place; arms outstretched as yet more energy rounds ricocheted around him. The miniature sun met metal, lightning echoing in his palms, keeping it from washing over him. Whatever madness the Life Fibers brought with them, they couldn't override a simple rule – even fire had mass to it, something to grab onto with burning spirit. With a grunt, he pushed back, the power fist sounding a whining howl as he forced the fireball back the way it came. Maiko was only able to yelp out half a complaint before both fireballs connected, erupting in a massive explosion that tore the assembled floor traps to shreds in the blast wave. He was already charging into the gap as the smoke cleared, finding nothing in the place Maiko should have been. All at once, a deep thrum of power reverberated within the chests of all in attendance, drawing them towards the sky.

Maiko floated above the arena, smoke-battered and fire damaged, but still in the fight. Her sceptre had a mind of its own as it hung before her, spinning and twitching as layers and layers of glyphs began to build up around her.

"You were dead Gamagoori! I watched Lady Ryuko peal you apart like an orange and throw you away like the trash you are! I took your place by rights because you were too weak! I will hold it, no matter what you do! This is my kingdom now! I own it! I earned it! And I will bury you beneath it!"

* * *

**HONNOUJI ACADEMY - ONE YEAR AGO**

_It had been a Naturals Elections to remember, and one that set everyone straight. Ira Gamagoori had openly tried to defy Lady Kiryuin, and she had made an example of him before the entire academy, a pure demonstration of power that cemented that to face the queen was to forfeit one's life. None opposed her decision, and if they did, they did so secretly. The northern slums had been a holdout for undesirables for God knew how long. Crime gangs, drug users, the weak-willed and poor of funds and spirit. Lady Kiryuin had burnt out the weakness that her sister had installed in Honnouji, and they were all better off for it._

_It didn't stop the oddness that was afoot though. The election was originally going to be for a fourth Three-Star Uniform and the control of the non-physical clubs, but now the prize was for the title previously held by the traitor Gamagoori, and the original uniform had vanished. Rumour was that Lady Kiryuin had pulled a diamond out the ashes of the slums, someone to take up the new mantle. But it was just rumour, and the position of Disciplinary Committee Chair was a sweeter prize anyway. More authority, and less paperwork._

_Out of the great many that had fought and bled for the honour, only two remained. They had come into the fight with blade and bullet and shield, but the long brawl had reduced them to a bare-knuckle fistfight, and one was on his last legs. The other pressed his advantage and swept in for a knockout hit, clubbing his opponent in the side of the head to send him down for the final time. Ryuko stepped over the twitching body of the loser to address the winner. She smiled, but there was no warmth on her face._

_"Congratulations, whatever your name is. You are our new head of – "_

_She stopped as the knife ran across his throat, and the victor of the Naturals Election collapsed, clutching his shredded neck and gasping for air. The girl with the knife was just as bloody and tired as he had been. She had waited within the locked academy walls for a week with only faint scraps to eat or drink, lest she be found in the foxhole she'd dug in the gardens to avoid the fighting. She had snuck into the first round, only to feign defeat at the start. She had disguised herself under the bodies of those fallen until the platform rose, and had hidden herself away underneath in the hollowed-out section she'd found on academy blueprints. And she had waited so very long for her victory._

_Ryuko looked at her, looked to the corpse, looked to her again and began to laugh. It was not a pleasant sound, but it brought a spark to her eyes that had been long since absent this election. Eventually, she breathed out, sizing up the newcomer._

_"Your name… what is your name, you crazy bitch?"_

_"Maiko Ogure." She whispered, in a voice rusted through from lack of use, jabbing a thumb towards her chest._

_"And I'm your new Disciplinary Committee Chair."_

* * *

"I own it! I own you! I own this academy! And I will burn it to the ground if it means you die in the process!"

She was lost in the mass of glyphs about her now, her staff spinning wildly out of control overhead. What she was planning was impossible, in theory. Shiro had advised against it again and again. With the power of her uniform, summoning a mine was nothing. Summoning the flare that had brought Ira to his knees took her breath away. To destroy him completely in a single spell should have only been possible with a fifth star. And yet, here she was anyway, about to save her seat upon the council.

The last word took everything she had, and her voice with it.

"Starfall!"

The blood-red sky of Honnouji was punched clean open as a great chunk of rock appeared, a vast meteor half the size of the tower Ryuko resided, aimed directly to crush the centre platform. She would be safe behind her barrier of glyphs, but he was right in the path of destruction, a spot in the shadow of death. Smaller rocks bombarded the arena, punching shotgun-blasts of craters in the sand at ground level. Uzu and Satsuki cut down every piece that came near as Houka and Nonon took cover. The crowds could do nothing to stop them, but every time a fragment threatened them it would shatter into harmless pieces, the shadow of Mako flickering from place to place as she took out each and every rock threatening the bystanders. There was no such guardian angel to protect Ira as the bulk of heaven's wrath fell upon him, engulfing him in stone. The platform crumpled under the mass, but it had been prepared to endure Ryuko Kiryuin, and did not fall even as the arena was assaulted twice over by the unholy screech of metal bending and buckling. Ryuko smiled from on high as Maiko drifted back down to the stage, her uniform drained of colour.

"Maiko, I don't know what's gotten into you, but I like it. Well, I guess this first round goes to– "

"NOT YET!"

It was not a voice that should have spoken. It was a voice that could not be silenced as floating cameras from the Film Club nipped in to document the point of impact. Ira appeared on every screen around the arena. The meteor Maiko had dropped was burning hot, and the molten light created by the heat illuminated him for all of Honnouji to see. The meteor had not made landfall. It was held up by gauntlets forged in the heat of duty. It was forced up by strength that refused to surrender to tyrants. Slowly, ever so slowly, it began to shift as Ira went from one knee and rose, hoisting the meteor with him. His helmet was a blaze of white metal from the task as he screamed retribution.

"You own this academy? You own this kingdom? You and your foul master own nothing but a litany of crimes that demand justice!"

He rose fully, and Maiko lost what little strength she had left, her uniform fading into its standard dress as he took a bold step forward, still holding the mass above his head.

"This academy was built as a place of refuge, a shelter from a world on the brink! And you monsters took your unstable hearts and turned the chaos inwards, on those you were charged with protecting! But no longer! I have returned with the rightful ruler of Honnouji! We will wrest back control from those who have poisoned this well and set it right with order and structure once again!"

The helmet was little more than a pair of red lights that glared death at Ryuko from under the meteor, but the glare was enough. Ira pushed forward with all his might and dominating force of will, hurling it at the central tower to meet Ryuko directly. Just as it seemed that the tower might be sheered in two, a second shout pushed back, a web of cracks appearing all throughout the surface of the rock, holding it together for a second until it came apart in mid-air, falling away into the wind as pebbles that rapidly faded away into dust. Ryuko dusted off her hands, and shot a look of pure spite back.

"Ira Gamagoori wins, cause Maiko's just pissed herself and fainted. She loses her title, her Three-Star Uniform and membership on the student council. Remove her from the arena and let's get the next round started."


	9. Music is the Victim

Chapter 9: Music is the Victim

_Nonon was losing her best friend and had to create a new one. She accepted the reality of her situation with the natural good grace of a lady of her standing and moved on to the next target she had been told to befriend. That was her part to play after all, forced to follow to the tune of her elders instead of composing her own symphony. The Jakuzures made up a large part of the Kiryuin dynasty, the loyal workhorse that shipped out the thousands of clothing lines and distributed them to every corner of the globe. But even this close relationship wasn't enough for her father, who desired a stronger link to the main family through the bonds of childhood friendship._

_Her original target had been Satsuki, but as of the new school year she had been instructed to double down on the younger sister. Ryuko was but four years old, but corporate whispers rumoured her to be the new inheritor to the conglomerate after Ragyo. Well, Nonon already had a foot in the door there. Satsuki's fake, ever-present smile and goody-two shoes attitude got right on her nerves, but after only a week it had become apparent to everyone at the High-Handed Kindergarten that the sisters were a package deal, Ryuko toddling in her sister's wake like a fresh duckling. Softening up one would get her in good with the other._

_That said, there was a surprising boon to her cause today. It was breaktime, and Ryuko was, for once, sitting completely alone, drawing symbols in the dirt with Satsuki nowhere to be seen. Her brand-new scarf had somehow miraculously managed to survive the muddy onslaught. Weird design. Almost like an eyeball._

_Nonon had done any with her usual posse of hangers-on for the initial meeting, both to create an atmosphere of friendliness and to get away from their non-stop whining. No, she really didn't care if Kaguya had put worms into Miyuki's hair, and she didn't need to be told three times before maths. She instead set them to work building a magnificent sandcastle. Ryuko was younger than her, such a showing of playground power would instantly put elevate her in the eyes of her underclassman. The invitation to lunch with an older girl would seal the deal, especially when she was informed that her beloved sister could come along as well._

_She had chosen the location perfectly, right in place to block out the sun so that Ryuko couldn't fail to notice her presence. The new scion played her part in turn, standing up and squinting as Nonon approached, holding out her hand._

_"Hi there. You're Ryuko, right?"_

_Ryuko's hand went to her scarf in a practised action at the sudden surprise, the fabric shimmering under her fingers. A safety blanket. How disgustingly sweet. Information for later._

_"Yeah. You're Satsuki's friend… um… Nonon?"_

_"Oh wow, you remember! And I haven't been over to your house in forever! Anyway, I've got a present for you. Check it out."_

_She presented her opening gambit with a flourish._

_"I own the sandbox, and everything else around here. No-one uses it without my permission but since you're my friend, you can use it any time! I'll even build you a castle to match!"_

_Ryuko stood in appropriate awe, and had taken the bait before Nonon could even mention lunch. She walked right up to the sandcastle, running her hand along the gritty surface. But before Nonon could say anything else, Ryuko plunged her hand right into one of the towers. The castle exploded a second later, erupting into its base materials and scattered into the air. Students ran about with tears and sand in their eyes, and Nonon was only saved by Marika protecting her with her paws just in the nick of time. Ryuko stood in the centre of the chaos, the picture of innocence amongst the crying. She dusted off her hands and walked back past Nonon, returning to her patch of dirt._

_"Nah, I'm okay. Your castle kind of sucks."_

_"Ryuko!"_

_A little thrill ran up the younger girl's back as Satsuki strode into the scene, arms laden with juice boxes and dress untouched by the sandstorm._

_"Sis!"_

_She went in for a hug, only to back down, shrinking from the frown that confronted her._

_"Go say sorry to everyone."_

_"But I didn't do anything!"_

_"Then why's everyone crying?"_

_"It's not my fault their stupid castle sucked!"_

_Satsuki sighed, and for a second Nonon saw an incredible tiredness pressing down on her shoulders. And then it was gone, and she was back to thin-lipped coolness._

_"I'll come with you. But we have to say sorry to everyone, okay? You blew up the castle they worked so hard to make."_

_Ryuko's pout faltered, and she kicked the dirt around._

_"Then we can have juice?"_

_"Of course. Now, let's start with Nonon."_

_Ryuko was over quick as a shot, head bowed and apology drawling out of her mouth. She clearly didn't mean a word of it, but she was off and about before Nonon could tell her off properly, bouncing from classmate to classmate to offer similarly insincere remorse. To her credit, she did at least attempt to rub the sand from their eyes, overly-rough hands scrubbing away. And all the while Satsuki stood and watched silently, and for the life of her Nonon couldn't figure out what she was thinking. When she spoke, she didn't even spare her a glance._

_"Please accept my apologises for my sister. She's still learning about people."_

_"No kidding."_

_"That said… Nonon Jakuzure, you would be best served by keeping out of our affairs. You don't know what you're getting involved with."_

_And with those cold words, she went to go collect Ryuko, taking her hand and walking away to find someplace quiet, leaving Nonon wondering what on earth was going on with the Kiryuin family._

* * *

The dent in the arena from Maiko's attempted colony drop took only a few minutes to repair thanks to the Honnouji Construction Club, the buckled platform straightened up and made ship-safe and Bristol fashion in no time at all. Even with all the time in the world, Ryuko seemed to want to push things along, hurriedly retrieving two new name slips while the repair work went on. The sole unknown mercenary had been drawn against Houka Inumuta, who wasted no time in transforming as they took to the stage. While Maiko's uniform had turned her power inwards, it was a protective series of rings that formed around Honnouji's information expert.

**THREE STAR GOKU UNIFORM – SPYMASTER REGALIA**

To call it a uniform felt like a misnomer at first, as Houka himself was largely unchanged, sans the wetsuit-like material that covered his body, lit up by holographic panels. Instead, the strength of the Spymaster regalia was in its design as a mobile fortress for one. The first of the two mechanical rings supported the structure for stability and kept Houka neatly shielded away in a large leather chair, around which many virtual keyboards surrounded the user. These controlled the second, horizontal ring which contained the majority of the uniform's armaments, heavy-set tubes pointing out with quiet malice.

A series of boosters on the ring's underside kept the Elite aloft and propelled him out the range of the claws the mercenary wielded on both hands, returning fire all the while with a battery of missiles spawned from every angle, directed by the targeting satellites that orbited the transformed uniform like deific halos. The mercenary had limited success in avoiding the bombardment, but it was not to last, and the match finished anticlimactically as he fell off the edge of the arena to his death. Ryuko took the dull fight surprisingly well, pulling out the next two names without much aplomb or vigorous swearing.

"Well, continuing our run of shockingly appropriate fights, next up are Mako Mankanshoku and Nonon Jakuzure. Don't fuck up this time Mako, it's not like she's got anywhere to run to."

A rapturous blast of cheering broke out all at once, Mako accompanied to the stage to truly deafening love from the No-Star section of the stadium and a smattering of applause from the One and Two-Star sections. She saluted the high tower and peppered the crowd with kisses blown from her palms in return, basking in the adulation she was receiving. Nonon made to join her, only to be stilled by a hand on her shoulder, Satsuki bringing her in close.

"Don't feel like you need to win this one. Iori's notes on the Platinum Regalia were shockingly lacking for a man of his observational abilities. Other than the usual speed and strength modifiers, our knowledge on its abilities is practically nothing at all. It may be that Mankanshoku has not yet needed to use the full extent of her uniform's powers, and I would not have you volunteer to be the test dummy. Soften her up if you can, but be prepared to throw in the towel. We cannot afford to suffer significant injuries this early on."

Nonon set a small smile on her face as she gently removed the hand, squeezing it tightly between her own.

"Don't worry Satsuki. I'm a lot stronger now than I used to be. You know that better than anyone."

**EIGHT MONTHS AGO**

_Running away was a new experience for Nonon. Being drunk as hell was another one. She'd finally taken as much as she could take, and her fixed smile had fallen from grace. She'd been happy to let her father plot out how her life would play out so long as he maintained a light touch. They'd had an easy-going relationship in that regard. She befriended the right people, made the right connections and kept her nose in the books, breezing through exams so that he had no reason to scrutinize her personal life. He'd never quite gotten over how both Kiryuin sisters had fallen through her fingers, and she could feel his disappointment whenever he sized up her newer companions._

_Setting up an arranged marriage went far and beyond that arrangement, and considering that she'd let a lot of shady business partners leer and paw at her over the years, the situation really took the piss. Her new husband-to-be not so subtly implying that she needed to put down her conductor's baton and take up his flute had been the last straw. She'd mustered one final fake smile to hide her disgust, and had politely put up with the rest of the hellish dinner party, only going up to her room and clearing it out once the asshole's limo had vacated the Jakuzure estate._

_Now she was making her way out to wherever she could get to quickest, with too many bags on her back and a bottle of stolen sake in her hand. For once her life wasn't on rails, and the heady sense of freedom had infected her so deeply that she didn't care that she'd packed too many sundresses and that, after a lifetime of having things carried for her, the bags were putting a real pain in her back._

_Well, for a while at least. After about half an hour on her own, and the straps were really digging into her shoulders. But as she went to set the bags down upon a grassy knoll and take a quick break, she lost all sense of balance and went over backwards, sent spinning head over limb, her bags bursting open with random items spilling out all over the place until she finally tumbled to a stop at the bottom. Two warriors were waiting for her there._

_They had clearly been fighting a while, and the man was on the losing side. His dark green armour showed no marks, but the thick rivers of sweat running down his face clearly forecast his loss in the encounter. The woman wasn't fazed in the slightest, sheathing her katana as she made her way to Nonon. For some reason, she was upside down and walking on the sky. She knelt down beside her, and it was only once they were face-to-face that she stopped spinning and Nonon could place that look of cool detachment._

_"Fuck me, you're Satsuki Kiryuin. I 'avn't seen you in years!"_

_"Nonon Jakuzure. I see you haven't grown much."_

* * *

The performance started tentatively, Nonon controlling the space between herself and Mako with a mechanised Bo Staff, the weapon extending and shrinking to land quick jabs and heftier knocks in turn. For some reason Mako hadn't transformed, taking the hits straight on or batting the staff aside with her fists. It was funny, in a way. When Nonon had first run away, the idea that she might step up to a fistfight was the furthest thing from her mind. Such silly scraps were for playground boys, and those larger playground boys that never quite grew out of the habit of swinging fists to impress the ladies. Left to her own devices out there in the big wide world, she likely would have ended up wandering aimlessly until she got her pampered arse killed or kidnapped.

It was only once Satsuki had set her right-side up and she'd finally stopped giggling at the idea she could swear openly for the first time in her life that a serious conversation had taken place in front of her. Satsuki had wanted to take her as a hostage; Ira had wanted nothing to do with her. With her new freedom in her hands, Nonon had pleaded a third option for her life.

She knew that Kiryuin assets had been under constant attack by intruders for months now. Some madmen that sought not to rob corporate secrets but destroy them entirely, and there was only one person who could raze Kiryuin factories to the ground and get away with it. The girl that had managed to escape the clutches of the world's controlling conglomerate and continued to slip away from them day after day with the same damned unreadable expression of cool aloofness that she'd borne since they'd gone to school together. High on escape, furious at her father and blindingly drunk, Nonon had begged for a chance for revenge against her family as Satsuki took revenge on hers. It had been a decision she'd bitterly regretted the morning after, as Satsuki had forced her to run alongside her fellow outcasts for miles with a pounding headache as they left a false trail for her father to follow. It had bitten into her with every bruise left in the aftermath of training sessions, haunted her with visions of soft beds and proper home comforts.

But she had endured, and now she could truly stand up to and alongside the best of the best. Not the champagne socialites that clung to whatever scraps of Ragyo Kiryuin's yesterday dresses that they could hold in fearful fingers, but those who actually swung up in the face of overwhelming power, spat in its eye and demanded another tomorrow for what was right.

Mako Mankanshoku was just another speedbump on the road to saving the world, but an annoyingly tough one. The Elite swept in, taking a hit on the shoulder as she moved into Nonon's ineffective range. Nonon jumped back, shrinking the staff and punching it out twice as fast to land a solid hit into Mako's gut. Briefly winded, and Nonon took the chance to weave a web of carbonised steel around Mako, landing hit after hit after hit. She grit her teeth and weathered the storm with gusto, but Nonon wasn't willing to let her get away so easily. The Bo Staff was passed over to her right hand for a lunging stab, but as Mako smacked the attempt away Nonon flicked out her yo-yo with the other hand, carbon-fibre string quickly wrapping around Mako's legs. As she swung and struggled to stay on her feet, here came the onslaught of Bo Staff jabs again, each one designed to weaken and cripple the threads that held the Three-Star uniform together.

Her tools were yet another thing she never would have dreamed of using, as the puppet she'd been before would have paled and mocked any girl who dirtied her hands performing manual labour, let alone touching anything mechanical. It had been a whim really, a bit of tinkering done to a broken toy to shut up a crying child who had shared the junkyard the hunters had slept in one night. Tinkering had turned to impatient collaboration with Ira to maintain his equipment so that they might get away from the stinking scrapheap as fast as they could, and from there a spark had lodged itself in her heart. Creation was simply in her blood, whether she was conducting Beethoven to a stunned concert hall or figuring out how to blast REVOCS goons to bits with the Hallelujah Chorus. But more than that, it had allowed her to finally step to Satsuki's level, instead of trailing behind uselessly behind the two as they had gone to war.

Nonon had to hand the bobble-headed girl one complement though, as she'd taken the beating with nothing more than clenched teeth and a steely glare. But she had chosen not to transform, and the Life Fiber Hunters were not the kind to sit idly on an advantage. Nonon thrust forward with one last stab aimed directly at the Banshi, the Bo Staff's pointed tip ready to puncture the central binding and render the Fibers useless. But just as the final blow was about to strike home, Mako vanished. Nonon found her a second later, standing to her side and free from her prison, her uniform as pristine as if it had just come off the factory floor.

There was no time to correct her momentum or even cry out as Mako stepped in and knocked Nonon clean off her feet with a single punch. The Bo Staff slipped from her fingers as she went down hard, only managing to maintain enough sense to roll so she didn't break her neck upon impact with the floor, and rolling over again to get to her feet. She found her short knife quickly, the serrated edge glinting in the red light. Her other hand went to her mouth, whistling for assistance as Marika jumped into the fray alongside her.

Some might say that building a robotic replica of a long dead pet was rather sad. Nonon called it a tactical advantage, and her pet went to work with another whistle, scurrying towards Mako with shining claws as Nonon tried to get her head to stop ringing. She didn't know how Mako had escaped, but with Marika closing in she could watch to see if and when she tried it again. She didn't have to wait long, as Mako once again vanished before her eyes. Nonon swung around this time, finding her on her flank once more. She went to brace herself for a fresh attack, but nothing came her way. Mako simply relaxed, smiling at her.

"You've got a lot of cool toys, you know that?"

And to Nonon's surprise, she was holding the Bo Staff. But that was impossible, seeing as it had been knocked far away from either girl and Mako hadn't made a move to go for it. She was spinning it now, twirling it from hand to hand with circus-level dexterity.

"But toys aren't really all that good against me, you know? My uniform's pretty strong. Like, super strong. And I'm not going to lose, cause I've got too much to fight for."

She gave the staff one final spin and launched it skyward like a cheerleader opening the climax of her performance.

"So how about you just give up? Your friend doesn't want you to get hurt after all."

Nonon dared look out the corner of her eye, to where Satsuki stood, sharply upright with Bakuzan-Prime in hand and Ira imposing himself at her side. Nothing showed on their faces. Nothing ever did. Those frozen expressions, that made her want to step to their level, prove that she was just as driven to put an end to REVOCS as they were.

Those damned stupid idiots, who needed their heads rung a couple times and told that they didn't have to give up everything just to save a world that wouldn't thank them for throwing away their youth in this mad underground war. Couldn't do that standing in their shadows, watching them pile stress after stress onto their shoulders. And so, Nonon shot the Elite a smile in return.

"Sorry, but I can't do that. You might be fighting for that Safe Zone you've got going, but I'm fighting so that the world won't need Safe Zones. Besides, running away from you once was bad enough; I'm sure as hell not doing it again."

She started up a string of short swings and cuts with her knife and Mako moved in kind, the two falling into a rhythm of jabs and steps, a strange kind of dance as the purple mist that Nonon had seen Mako use back in the Safe Zone began to gather over her shoulders. The kid gloves were coming off, a fact made abundantly clear when Mako vanished again. There was a sudden sharp pain in Nonon's ribs, so strong that instinct forced her to one knee right before Mako punched her in the side of the head again. She hit the ground for real this time, just in time to watch her Bo Staff make the return trip, the tip plunging straight towards her as it fell from the heavens. It was just as well she had her tactical advantage, Marika returning from her task to snatch the staff out the air using her master as a springboard. It found more use as a walking stick now, and Nonon barely made it to her feet on shaking legs. Her stomach was ablaze with pain. If she had any ribs left unshattered from that attack it would be a miracle. Every breath was a struggle, but Mako just kept bouncing from foot to foot, winding up her arm for a final attack.

"Nonon, withdraw!"

The pause button was hit, the entire stadium turning to look at Satsuki. But she only had eyes for Nonon.

"She's altering your perception somehow. Twice now she has moved in to attack, and twice you have stood there and done nothing about it. Once is acceptable due to injury, but I refuse to believe you missed her collecting your weapon. Stand down, now!"

"Yeah fucking right."

And everyone switched, staring up at Ryuko, her face split and showing far too many teeth as the sky began to pump poisonous red, Junketsu's epaulettes thrilling in the wind.

"You really think I'm gonna allow you and your little friends to stroll in, take a swing and duck out when your ass gets beaten? Maybe you didn't read the terms and conditions, but this is the Naturals Elections! You fight until you drop, and we don't care if you're dead or not when it happens! Mako!"

There was a slight, nervous nod from Nonon's opponent. At this range, only she was privy to the sweaty, pinched face of the Non-Athletics Chair.

"Yes, Lady Ryuko?"

"Break her in half!"

A viscous roar washed over them, the crowd in full support for the spilling of blood from the intruders. Nonon straightened up, took in what little air she could. Judging from Ira's gritted teeth, it was unlikely that Ryuko had invented the rule on the spot. He might have even written it down and enforced it, once upon a time.

"Well, that settles that, doesn't it?"

She was moving before anyone could change her mind, including her common sense. Letting adrenaline salve her wounds, she charged right at her opponent, who took the fresh attack with a small, sad sigh, deflecting the knife and sending it spinning off the edge of the arena.

"Marika, now!"

Mako had been making to follow up the parry but froze at the sudden command, tensing to endure a new attack. Just as Nonon had planned, and exactly the wrong thing to do. If she had looked around, she would have seen them. Tiny speakers, no bigger than a saucer but scattered all over the arena by Marika. Completely ignored by Mako in her attempt to end to the fight peacefully. A tune known far and wide burst out in waves of Anti-Fiber energy as Beethoven's Fifth Symphony rocked the arena. Now it was Mako's turn to be caught unawares and screaming as her uniform went all jagged around the edges, locking her in place as the vibrations ripped through her, a pleasure Nonon wasted no time in gloating over.

"Do you really think I'd only come here with toys and sticks? The music these speakers produce resonates with Life Fibers and cripples them, damaging whoever's wearing the tacky things in the first place. And now that you can't use your uniform, you're a sitting duck!"

Ira wasted no time in throwing the heavy artillery to her, even if the shoulder-mounted bass cannon took far longer to steady than usual with bruised ribs and a concussion holding her back. But with Marika to help, Mako fell right into the sights.

"Act three finishes right now!"

The din became truly unbearable as the bass cannon roared its cry of Hallelujah, a blindingly pink beam tearing through the shining rings of energy that kept Mako in place and surging straight into the core of the Elite. The centre of the arena was engulfed in a swirling maelstrom of rolling energy that sent everyone's hair standing up on end and sent the crowd diving to protect what little of their hearing they had left. And then, blessed silence, as the storm faded away into nothing, leaving only ionized smoke crackling in the space Mako had been trapped. Nonon let the cannon fall away with a heavy clang, unable to hold onto it as the weight of the entire fight pressed down all at once, knees buckling under her in exhaustion.

"And that's… two down."

She never saw the silver fist coming. A sudden, meaty thud that broke the bridge of her nose and followed by a hundred more, striking every inch of her body as a tribal giantess erupted from the metal plates of the arena and laid into her, a blur of punching without end until gravity took hold of Nonon and sent her skipping across the ring, coming to a still halt at the edge, limp and unmoving with one broken arm hanging over the side to oblivion. The giant extracted itself from the centre, standing tall with long hair swaying in the wind, platinum skin and neon-blue tribal tattoos shining strong against the blood-red light from Honnouji's peak.

**THREE STAR GOKU UNIFORM – PLATINUM REGALIA**

It stalked across the arena, steam hissing out from the nose as it retrieved Nonon's body and then, with a quick, contemptuous flick of the wrist, threw her straight at Satsuki. Outstretched arms brought the bloodied mess of their friend home, Ira already waiting with a first-aid kit at the ready as Ryuko heralded her champion in wicked laughter, the stadium screaming the name of the victor over and over again.


	10. Power

Chapter 10: Power

The wind was up today. A bad day to take a shot, but it would have to be done regardless of Mother Nature's temperament. She'd be thanking him later, when the Life Fibers were wiped away from her planet. The rig had been set up long ago, the long barrel of Aikuro's sniper rifle aimed squarely at the centre of the Naturals Election's arena. Now all he could do was wait for his target to grace her stage, which she would. Aikuro could feel it in his waters. The placement and failures of her minions mattered little, as Satsuki would make it to the final singlehandedly even if she had to give up an arm to get there. Once she and Ryuko came to blows, all he had to do was let them crash up against each other until the tyrant of Honnouji wore herself down and opened herself up. With one shot, a quarter of REVOCS' ruling caste would be eliminated, and the keystone to Ragyo's insane plan would be destroyed. Creating a new Kamui from scratch would have burdened the design enough, but there were only two others that could take up the mantle of world-ender. Ragyo would either go hunting for her eldest daughter or place herself into the centrepiece of her device of sacrifice come the promised day. Either way, Nudist Beach would react accordingly, and show her the power of humanity that she'd so arrogantly dismissed.

A deep rumble echoed up the highway, coming to a stop right outside his little nest. Tsumugu had returned, and he almost broke out into a ghost of smile when he saw the setup. It was quickly smothered.

"Should I even ask why you felt the need to bring a picnic basket with you?"

"Well, it's not like I could have been fashionably late to this event. Better to camp out early so I'm ready for when our idol shows up. And as an added bonus, I got to watch you go at it with the young puppy. I take it you're not too bashed up after that fall?"

"I'll give him credit; the kid didn't pull any punches. Couple of my ribs are having trouble realigning, but I'm used to it by now. I'll be heading back to provide support as soon as I'm done here. But seeing as you've brought lunch…"

He reached into a deep pocket, retrieving a small plastic bag. The bullets inside caught the sun just right, casting the pair in a deeper red than his florescent mohawk.

"I'll trade you a sandwich for three Red Herrings."

* * *

Miraculously, she was alive. Beaten within an inch of her life and uncontrollably twitching, but alive. Bruises were starting to flood up her body, her right arm had been cleanly broken and her nose would likely never be the same once it was reset, but she was alive.

"She needs a doctor. This kit can only do so much."

Ira was in full field medic mode; already fixing the arm in a basic splint to keep it from moving about, applying creams and tinctures as quickly as his massive metal gauntlets would allow. They had until Ryuko stopped laughing her guts out to come up with a change of plan.

"Retire from the tournament. Get her out of the city and head back into Tokyo."

She reached into a fold, tucking the item into one of his pouches before he could object.

"That's the last of my savings, including the account with my embezzled REVOCS funds. Buy the best treatment you can."

"It shames me to leave you here alone."

"There is no shame in leaving my back unguarded to save her."

"Wait, can I help?"

Somehow, Mako had materialised next to them. Untransformed, squatting with her arms around her legs and looking no worse for wear other than a bit of tired droopiness about her eyes, despite the fight she'd just endured.

"I've got doctors. A lot of them, in the Safe Zone."

Satsuki assessed Ryuko. Still laughing.

"You render her like this, then offer to fix the damage. Why? Moreover, what makes you think Ryuko will allow you?"

"Well, your friends saved a bunch of my friends, so it's only fair that I pay them back. Ryuko will understand, once I tell her nicely."

She removed her hand from the hilt of Bakuzan-Prime.

"Ira, any objections?"

"I do not believe her honour is in question, although I am uneasy about leaving Nonon unattended."

"You can come with! That was your plan anyway, right?"

Ira looked up to her, features somewhat pinched.

"Are you sure that you'll be fine to proceed alone, milady?"

"It is fine. In the end, it was always going to be between Ryuko and I. We are merely speeding up the process."

"Hey! What's this huddle about?"

Mako nipped past them, leaping from arena to ringside to Ryuko's left hand in a matter of seconds. Cuddling in close, whispers went back and forth, the stadium left waiting awkwardly until Ryuko stepped away, rolling her eyes. With a few sharp steps, she returned to the precipice.

"Congratulations Satsuki. Mako informs me that she's going to take care of your little friend. She's sweet like that. However! I'm not letting Gamagoori leave. This is my tournament, and my school. I'm sick and tired of you two wandering in and out like you own the place."

Sharp-pointed fingers cracked as she flexed them.

"When this is all over, I'll pay you two traitors back exactly how you're deserved. But for now… Mako, get your medics in. Uzu!"

"Yes, My Lady!"

"Tear Satsuki apart."

He leapt into centre stage, coattail billowing out behind him.

"With pleasure."

Satsuki didn't look back as she moved to face him, Bakuzan-Prime shining as it was drawn into the midday sun. The arena shook beneath her feet, quivering as dark green light began to build up all about the swordsman. The air was thick and heavy, pressing down on all in attendance as a warrior god stepped out from the painful incandescence, burdened with all the panoply of war that rattled a marching beat as he stalked towards his opponent.

**FOUR STAR GOKU UNIFORM – WAR GOD REGALIA**

Three heads, twisted with viscous sneers looking left, right, and dead ahead. Golden armoured plates protecting every inch of flesh, upon which depictions of every great battle of history had been engraved, a living monument to war ready to add more scenes to its collection. Four additional arms, wreathed in banners of Honnouji and Kanto, wielding shield and axe, spear and bastard sword. The shinai he'd walked in with had become a great katana, almost odachi sized but tossed from hand to hand as though it weighed no more than a common butter knife. But of course. Flash and thunder, designed to inspire fear in he who had mustered the strength to snatch the fourth star. If one broke their enemy before they even arrived on the battlefield, would anyone shun their claims of being the greatest swordsman?

But his enemy today had no intentions of standing down. Even if she had the convenience of surrender, it would not be taken. Uzu would fight her until they were both broken. That was the promise made when she had given him this stage, after all.

They clashed in the centre, the first impact scattering the crackling purple clouds left behind from the last battle, each shockwave rippling out and buffeting the air, leaving those watching clinging to their seats lest they be sent flying. There was no desperate screaming or banter, the battle was one of near silence as the katanas flickered and met again and again, the only sound ringing throughout the stadium that of metal on metal as they advanced though their deadly dance. Small retreats when the flanks were threatened, twists and turns to try to dislodge the other's blade while maintaining their grip on theirs. The swords struck and feinted so quickly and interchangeably that the outside viewers dared not even cheer when a blow appeared to land for fear of being premature in celebration.

It took five minutes before first blood was drawn. Uzu misjudged a feint, Bakuzan-Prime darting forward into the slight gap between plates and slitting a thin line across his collarbone before he could correct himself. The golden warrior leapt back, one hand resting across the wound as the smallest drops of red welled up along the cut.

"Impressive. Even with Shingantsu, you're moving quickly enough that it makes no difference."

Satsuki didn't respond, already moving to put him on the back foot once more. There was no clash of blades this time. Instead the spear came to greet her, punching out to disrupt her flow. When she avoided that the axe was already crashing down on her, and by the time she'd defended herself against that the bastard sword was moving, chopping into her space to force her back. As she did so, the back of the War God Regalia was already opening up, a hundred strings tensing in preparation.

Uzu braced himself as his unleashed his new attack, a deadly hail of arrows flying high up before coming crashing down on every inch of the arena. Satsuki stepped back to avoid one, and from there she was locked into defence as the hail thickened into a storm. A hundred strings tensed and released every few seconds, laying on the arrows in such furious numbers that neither contestant could see the sun though the barrage. But Satsuki kept moving, stepping away where she could and hacking away those she couldn't. For all Uzu's artillery, her advance was only delayed in starts and faults. And so it was the Uzu ran to meet her instead, ramming his spear forward as she made to dodge his final volley.

It almost worked, but as they met each other's range Satsuki leapt onto the shaft of the spear, springing over and knocking a flight of arrows asunder with one swing as she did so. The spear arm was next to go, removed at the elbow in one swift motion. The numbers game came back into play, undeterred by the loss of their fellow as the useless arm was ejected. It was here that Uzu had the advantage, keeping Satsuki at bay by separating her focus between three weapons moving in conjunction. For each one she turned away, another was already preparing to bite her unguarded zones. And yet they never hit home, Satsuki weaving a web of steel all around her to deflect the multi-headed blows that came at her. Each movement was perfect, but there was no sign of thought or elation on her face as she kept him out. That calm, unapproachable demeanour that had scattered his accomplishments back in Kanto, showing him how small and petty his dreams of delinquency had been.

He lashed out with all three, forcing a block and putting distance between them. Only the katana went to work now, coming down again and again, cutting the air and whipping it into a series of blades that surged towards Satsuki. He chased them down, watching as she turned and flipped over the barrage, only to come back into katana range. Her sleeve tore open, blood spraying freely as she was caught trying to leap over him. But she stuck the landing, and another arm was torn loose in return, the shield clattering to the ground. He spun about, ejecting the useless arms and coming at her again, already wracking his mind for a new way to land a hit. The same trick never worked twice on her, after all.

She whipped her arm up, blood coating his leftmost face. Not the greatest impediment to his sight, but a bother nonetheless. In a feint, she swung in on the right, aiming to claim the axe arm. He went to turn her away, realising his mistake too late, as she immediately twisted to the left, driving Bakuzan-Prime clean up the bloodied side of his armour. Life Fibers ripped away, and he could already feel them pushing back against him, furious that he dared allow them to be damaged. He caught her with a backhand to the ribs, but it was a glancing blow at best, and she danced away, already tearing cloth loose and wrapping her arm to stop the spray of crimson.

Three years. Three years, and the most he could do to her was trade two arms for a slice of hers. He had fought Ryuko time and time again, pushed himself as hard and far as he could, and all he had to show for it was a single cut, so readily bandaged. Satsuki came at him again, and he screamed.

The shockwave of ki knocked her clean off her feet, flipping over and regaining her stance at the edge of the arena. It was the first of many, each tumultuous ring shaking the arena down to its core in wave after wave, and in the centre of each ring of power was the War God Regalia, growing more distorted and bulging with every second that passed. The finely crafted armour buckled from the internal pressure, golden plates peeling away to show unnaturally budging muscles, laced with strings of red. One arm tore the helmet away completely as the remaining weapons were discarded revealing blank eyes and terrible fangs as Uzu screamed fury to the heavens. Just as the shockwaves died down the back of the Four-Star uniform opened up one last time, releasing not arrows but hundreds of katanas, each on landing point-down in the platform as the last of the armour fell away, leaving Uzu in simple hakama and nothing more.

He was moving before anyone could react, a sword in each hand and bearing down on Satsuki. One caught her clean across the chest, another one coming dangerously close to her neck before she regained her balance and deflected it. What had been a back-and-forth match now dissolved into a frenzied chase, Satsuki set to a desperate defence as Uzu ran her down. She disarmed an obvious swing, only for him to duck down and rip a new blade from the ground to replace it, again and again with each disarming. His swordsmanship had diminished but the raw strength of Life Fibers pushed him on. She slipped a long slice across his chest past the storm of blades, only for it to be ignored as he pushed forwards, throwing the blades at her and taking up two new ones.

She nimbly dodged the thrown blades, but more were coming. Uzu kicked swords up from their embedded holes and launched them her, throwing more and more to keep her busy. She ducked under one and snatched another from the air, throwing it back to stop the advance of three more. Running into the new space, she caught Uzu with a knee to the head as he ducked down to collect another. That sudden impact got him to stagger, and she managed a clean slice through one of the red strings, grabbing the end and taking it with her as she evaded a clumsy retaliation swing.

Planting herself, she pulled on the Life Fiber, feeling it give way as Uzu chased her down. But it was enough. He was starting to slow, the sudden removal of his lifeline sending the battle's damage impacting on him all at once. The same fury was in his strikes, but as she slipped around a wayward cut and hit him with a solid punch to the side of the head again, he was forced to give pause, shaking his head out and trying to regain himself as she tore more string free. The last of it escaped him, his body returning to normal size as she tossed it up and shredded it to pieces. And yet, he was still standing, the furious haze in his eyes clearing. He swayed in place for a moment, catching himself a second later and fixing into a proper stance.

"Been working on this… for about a year. Do you know how hard it is to kick a sword?"

"It's over Sanageyama. Give it up."

"Never. I might have lost a step there, but I'll make it back. Two hits I've landed on you. That's two more than last time. Let's see if I can make it three."

Blood leaked freely from his chest, splattering about his feet as he lowered himself for one last swing. The cut in her robes freely displayed the wound across her breast as a soft wind blew across the arena. Satsuki sheathed her blade, resting a hand upon the hilt.

"Then by all means, come and earn it."

One step. Two. Three. On the fourth, she brought her sword up as his came down, Uzu stumbling past and crashing in a heap behind her, a second cut across his chest to match the first. Satsuki brought fingers to her mouth, her bottom lip split wide open and trickling blood down her chin.

"And that's three. You've done well, Sanageyama."

She sheathed Bakuzan-Prime for real, turning her back on Ryuko's disgusted grimace. The crowd was silent, holding hands to mouths and biting tongues as Uzu lay still and unmoving. Mako was almost on the brink of tears. She kept her footsteps slow and steady, ignoring the long cut that he had rent on her from breast to shoulder even as she felt the open area become fingered by hundreds of tiny, thirsty mouths. Acknowledging it would only drive them into thinking that they could feed on their own will, not hers. Ira already had bandages and gauze prepared, tending to her arm with a paleness she had not seen on him since their reunion.

"Calm yourself. This was to be expected."

"Lady Satsuki, in all the time I have known you, you have not suffered so much as a scratch. Forgive me if seeing you injured twice in one fight concerns me."

"Thrice." She tapped her lip. "Do not downplay his achievements today."

"Of course, it's just that- "

He paused, broken off as a massive cheer ripped through the stadium. Uzu was struggling to his feet, his front completely soaked from his gushing wounds but standing nonetheless. Slowly, somewhat dazed, he turned to them and managed a salute before his legs gave out once more, sending him tumbling into the sudden arms of Ryuko, holding him tightly. Buckled at the knees, he was almost her height.

"You magnificent bastard, you absolute madman. Good fucking fight."

* * *

The crowds were out in full force to watch the Naturals Elections. As Honnouji's premiere event and elective campaign, it was a must-watch for the citizens who tentatively called Honnouji home. It helped that Ryuko loved being on display, and as such had massive screens prepared for the masses to huddle around. But none of that concerned Nui, who had different entertainment in mind as she danced from rooftop to rooftop, booing and hissing the screens as she went. The lousy monkey in Ryuko's employ had only put three scratches on Satsuki, which wasn't nearly enough. Not nearly, nearly, even one-one thousandth good enough!

Then again, Satsuki wasn't good enough for a lot of things. Bludgeoning was too quick, burning was too slow, even if she started with only a candle and built up a bonfire around it. Poisoning was out of the question, deeply unsatisfying as it was even when the victim was blue in the face and puking their guts out. And while turning her into a human pincushion was tempting, as it would be terribly unfashionable to ruin a pig with the same trick twice in a row in one week. Nui was an expert, an artiste. She had standards to uphold, and becoming a one-trick-pony would kill her creative soul. She would have to put all her best women on the case, to best figure out what to be done about her terrible oldest sister.

All along the rooftops and watchtowers of Honnouji, packs of REVOCS' Grand Couturier wove terrible plans as they converged upon the academy.


	11. Technologic

Chapter 11: Technologic 

_The lifeboat came to a gentle stop as she made landfall, cushioned in soft sand and abandoned for whomever came across it first. She transferred an appropriate payment to the ferry company as she walked, as the crew were likely only just noticing that one of their passengers had hijacked vital equipment and docked ahead of time. While she'd travelled under a false name and paid passage on her secondary account, her mother's eyes were everywhere. She had not spent a year in exile just to be captured by border patrol or some stray camera the second she returned home._

_Home, such as it was. REVOCS advertising scarred every building here in Yokosuka, testaments to the power she faced alone. False idols promising whatever the beholder wished from their corporate overlords. Community, solidary, status. Brand yourself with Ragyo's seal and become part of the movement at a cut-throat price. She made her way around the edge of the city, idly wondering if the fishermen that had sought out REVOCS' assistance in campaigning for better equipment would be quite so pleased to wear the new uniforms they'd been granted if they knew about the invisible teeth waiting in the folds of each stitch._

_Her trails took her to the navel base, and the district that fed upon its success. It was mid-afternoon, and already the bars and restaurants were swelling with bored military men looking to speed through the rest of their shifts with a little alcoholic lubricant. But even if she was of proper age, the mission demanded she needed to be unclouded by the doldrums of drink, no matter how tempting the idea to slip into the crowd and drown the nagging voice at the back of her mind. The one that kept reminding her that she'd been all around the world and gotten nowhere. Each country she'd visited, each company she'd visited in shadows, every revolutionary group so readily accepting of a quick cash injection straight from REVOCS' own coffers, not one plan had shaken her mother's grip upon the world. Oftentimes, she had been failed by the very people she was wishing to save, and tightened the noose she sought to sever._

_Still, there was hope. Honnouji Academy, and Ryuko. Her sister would not be pleased with her disappearance, but maybe, just maybe, this year of independence had created the ally she needed to put a stop to Ragyo and Nui. She would make her way back to Honnouji and tell Ryuko everything, convince her of the cause._

_She paused, checked for watching eyes. With no-one about, she slipped into an alleyway, and punched the wall until her fingers bled. A moment later, and she was back out in the winding back roads, the picture of composure._

_Convince Ryuko of the cause? She didn't even know if her sister had any free will left at all at this juncture. How many times had Ragyo imprinted false visions upon her, how many times had wildly different versions of the same event been remembered between them?_

_A hand, holding hers, so soft yet firm. Big blue eyes, innocently inviting her into a bath. Figures in the steam, wicked smiles showing true intentions._

_A drunk staggered into her, an unfortunate victim earning himself a gut punch and sent crashing to the ground, leaking urine and vomit. She stumbled away, moving faster now. The forge was close, the ringing of metal on metal a beacon, drawing her away from the storm of her own failures._

_She turned a corner, and found the Gamagoori Ironworks. Steadying herself with a breath, she made her way inside, the spring day a trifle compared the blast of heat that buffeted any would-be customers. With no-one standing at the counter, she rang the bell and waited, hands tighter on Bakuzan then she would have liked. A rough voice echoed acknowledgement, and it struck her that Ira must have picked up his way of speaking from his uncle. They sounded very much alike._

_The curtain split open, Ira Gamagoori edging his way through a doorway meant for a much smaller man._

_Time froze. He was not supposed to be here. Honnouji was an unusual academy by any standards, but it still kept to the standard curriculum timetable, including holidays. Unless her burner phone's calendar was seriously misleading her, there was still a goodly while of academia until Golden Week. An incident in the family? But that did not explain his injuries, the sheer number of scars that tore across his shirtless form, some still red and raw._

_Before she could say anything, he staggered out from around the counter, and dropped to his knees before her, shaking with great sobs._

_"Thank Gods. Thank the Gods, you've returned."_

_She fell to him, grabbing him by the shoulders._

_"Gamagoori, what are you doing here? What is going on?"_

_He told her. And hope died._

* * *

Uzu was carted away to rapturous cheering from the crowds, a gaggle of nurses already washing and dressing his wounds as he departed the stadium. Ryuko was back upon her high throne chewing at a fingernail, whatever elation she'd felt at his near-victory already torn down by Satsuki's continued survival.

"Next match is Ira Gamagoori vs Houka Inumuta. No-one hold your breath."

Ira snipped away the trailing end of the bandages, neatly tided away the first aid kit, saluted Satsuki and readied himself for war. Ryuko nearly rolled her eyes out of her head as he slowly descended towards the arena.

"No please, take your time, it's not like I have a showdown of destiny to get to today."

"There is plenty of time to spare. You started the proceedings early, and as such I am merely helping to correct the timetable."

Iron buckled under fingertips.

"You know Gamagoori, I really have trouble deciding which one of you I hate more sometimes. I mean, with Satsuki it's personal, but you seem to just piss me off on a fundamental level."

"Consider that the call of your conscience, trying to break free."

"Eat shit old man. Inumuta, kill him."

"Oh, you don't want him brought in alive to do it yourself?"

"Alright buddy, if you think you can step up to the big leagues, be my guest. Just don't come crying to me when he kicks your ass."

"Please. As if I'd ever give you the satisfaction."

Bright blue light flooded the arena, and the Spymaster Regalia formed its protective sphere around Houka. With a flick of Ryuko's hand the fight started, a hail of missiles went roaring out towards Ira, the big man responding in kind by shooting as many out of the air as he could, dodging the ones that got past his aim. The arena surface was shredded up again as it had been done in so many minutes, jagged rock clips bombarding the power armour and crippling Ira's movement. They had barely died down when another barrage came screaming in, Houka following his former council member's tactics and keeping as much range between him and the challenger as possible.

Poor taste to admit it as it was, Ryuko's bastardisation of the Honnouji system had done great work for even those not of a combative persuasion. Houka wasn't merely hording away data, but refining it through himself. A far cry from the middle school boy who instigated market crashes without forethought for what might come after.

* * *

_Honnouji was complete, and so too did her freedom come to a close. She had about a week before Ragyo pulled on her chain and summoned her to the main office. What would happen next did not bare thinking of. If she was lucky, a quick and dirty death, like the one dealt to their father. If not, then Ragyo would likely take her time peeling away Satsuki's masks until she begged for a final mercy._

_She had an unspoken agreement with her mother. They both knew she was treacherous to the cause, but Ragyo could not prove it and Satsuki was not in a position to tilt the field. Ryuko's admission that she could not assemble Honnouji alone had been the piece that turned things around, but it wasn't enough. She needed her sister to see things the way they were, change sides of her own accord. As the Student Council President, she would be independent from the clutches of the family and free from Ragyo's propaganda, at least for a time. Enough time that she might start asking questions of her own._

_That was the hope, but the first meeting was not going well._

_"Satsuki, this dude's like, thirty."_

_"Ryuko…"_

_"Oh, come on, he is!"_

_"Lady Ryuko, I apologise if I making you uncomfortable. However, while I am indeed in my final year of compulsory schooling, I am here as an independent force for justice before I am an adult. I promise you, nothing untoward shall happen so long as I am your head of discipline."_

_Ryuko's face curdled, and she made her way down the line, running eyes up and down Uzu. His growth spurt was coming in, but not quite as quickly as he would have liked; Ryuko still able to look down on him by half a head._

_"Nice sword. Compensating for something?"_

_"Nah, I'm done compensating. This is a promise. To get up to her level, and go even further."_

_"Yeah, good luck with that. Satsuki's the best."_

_"Guess I'll just have to settle for beating you then."_

_There was a soft pause, and a smile grew on Ryuko._

_"It's your funeral buddy."_

_Lastly, she came to Houka, already disconnected from the conversation and tapping away on a smartphone._

_"I'm sorry, are we boring you?"_

_"Her? No. You? Yes. Your superiority complex and complete lack of class has already gotten old."_

_"Why- "_

_"I'm Houka Inumuta. I'm going to be handling everything that's going to fly over your head. I suspect that's going to give me far more to do then my colleagues here."_

_"You upstart little nerd. Do you know who the hell I am?"_

_"Of course I know who you are. I simply don't care to bow to your ego, Ms Vice President."_

_He scoffed, waving the device about airily._

_"Vice President. A token role, devoid of any real responsibility. Rather sums up your contributions thus far, does it not?"_

_Ryuko's fists were balled at her sides, her face a violent shade of purple-red._

_"That's enough."_

_And like that, the tension dropped from the room, all four focused on Satsuki._

_"Inumuta, you may not like it but Ryuko is your superior, and you shall treat her with the same respect you show me. Moreover, while her contributions have been less obvious to you then my own, she has still been responsible for overseeing the construction of this academy following the designs we collaborated on, a role she has exceled at admirably."_

_"Yeah, I kind of ran this place while Sis was out collecting you knuckleheads, and I'm responsible for the uniform system, so feel free to bow down, Three-Star."_

_"Ryuko, Inumuta may not fall in line with the kind of assistance you had in mind, but his contributions are as unknown to you as yours were to him, and Honnouji would be poorer off if not for his attendance. Take that taunt to heart, and put him in his place by showing him show capable you are, as I know you to be."_

_"A delightful sentiment Madam President, but again, I don't need the Vice President's approval, and I sincerely doubt she has the ability to surprise me."_

_"Then your vaulted data has already failed you, seeing as you have incorrectly assumed our titles. I will not be serving as Student Council President. That honour goes to Ryuko."_

_There was another pause, and then an explosion of noise from all quarters. Not how she was hoping to break the news._

* * *

Ira broke the deadlock, grabbing a missile before it could hit him and hurling back the way it came, into the path of another attack. Missile met missile in a tremendous explosion that shook the arena, spectators having to shield their eyes or be blinded. The Spymaster Regalia ejected from the smoke screaming, Houka rapidly typing away. The damaged frame of the Regalia glowed a dull blue, the wounded metal trying to knit itself back together. But the range advantage was lost, Ira charging him down and sending the sphere spinning with an almighty shoulder tackle. Houka fought for control, barely backpedalling away from the scything swipe of the power fist, lightning ripping through the air with a dread crackle.

The metal shifted, the side-cannons coming together in a frontal arrangement. Golden light built up and erupted straight away, the Regalia sent rocketing backwards as a pure beam ripped out from the combination cannon. Ira threw himself to one side, the attack racing past in a rush of heat that curled upwards into the blood red sky, careening towards the clouds and vanishing out of sight. As he chambered to his feet, the Spymaster Regalia sat in the centre of the arena, the rings spinning listlessly around an empty chair.

Instantly, Ira swung back, whipping the fist through empty air. Connecting with nothing, he switched out the boltgun for his sidearm, a silver pistol built around a brace of green coils. They lit up as he primed the trigger and fired, a blinding pulse bursting from the end and punching through the platform floor. With the metal burning white-hot from impact, he turned and fired again, and again, a ring of holes around him, each sizzling with the stink of melting iron. All about him the platform glowed with menacing heat, yet not a degree of it burned him as he kept on turning, kept on looking.

"Clever. But not clever enough."

Ira swung down with a vicious chop, only to freeze mid-swing as a wire jammed into the back of his helmet. Houka decloaked, connected to the other end via his arm.

"You assumed I'd go for the backstab straight away. Reasonable, but predicable. I was stood in front of you the entire time."

He rolled his neck, cracked the bones.

"Now then, let's get rid of all those dangerous toys."

Slowly, with the unwilling creak of metal, Ira's arm began to move of its own accord. The pistol went flying over the edge. The boltgun followed, along with all its spare ammunition. Houka slipped the grenades away himself, ignoring the grunts and strains from within the armour.

"Although, I'll be keeping these. Got to do my part in this affair, after all."

"For fuck's sake Inumuta, quit running your mouth and fucking kill him already!"

Houka typed out a sequence into his arm, spinning the cluster of grenades on one finger.

"Have no worries Lady Kiryuin. My data is perfect. Now that I've taken over the operating system, Gamagoori is no longer a threat to us. If you wish, I'll have him march over to the detention halls for processing."

Ryuko cast her sour gaze over the arena. To Satsuki, sitting perfectly still in seiza, not so much as twitching as she watched the fight in progress.

"You know what? Yeah, send him on a walk. Straight off the edge. He's a big boy, he can take it."

"As you wish."

A quick clatter across the keyboard, and Ira's leg jerked forward unnaturally. Another command, and he rotated on the spot, aimed at the edge of the arena. Metal protested with every step taken, the armour straight-backed and stiff as it was frog-marched to the cusp. It stopped there, heavy boots half hanging over the slip to oblivion.

"And this round's winner is… me."

Houka rattled out a final command. The audience breathed in as one, cameras ready to capture the moment of impact.

They were left waiting. The armour stayed in place, not even shaking in resistance. Demand after demand went into the keyboard, and yet Ira still stood, fixed upon the edge. After the third attempt, Houka changed his target. Metal ran and reformed, the front of the Spymaster Regalia moulded into a triple-barrelled chain gun. A flick of the wrist and it let rip, thousands of rounds pounding into Ira's back, the ring of loose shell casings a constant rattle to give gravity a little extra assistance. And yet, as the barrels wound down and the shrill whine faded, the battle had no winner, and gunfire was replaced by howling from the crowd, a constant demand of down, down, down.

"Ira Gamagoori, this sort of poor sportsmanship is most unbecoming. You may be exerting enough strength to fight my control, but you cannot overcome it. All you're doing is wasting everyone's time."

There was no response. And then Ira's head turned. Slowly, with a grind of metal that set teeth on edge, the left arm began to rise. The rapid-fire clatter of keys went to work, armour fighting against the owner once more, the arm shaking even as it drifted towards the implanted cable.

"The only time I have wasted was that not spent keeping you all in line."

Helmet lenses flared ruby-red, and the keyboard on Houka's arm exploded, smoke billowing from the rupture in his suit. He tore the ruined sleeve away and made to regain control, but the cable was ripped free, Ira already charging back towards the centre of the arena. Houka's form began to flicker into disappearance once more, trying to buy time as he switched to the other keyboards. But with one arm exposed, the disguise wasn't keeping up with the owner, and the crackle of Ira's fist raced lightning across the reflective parts, little fires bursting into life all over the material.

Houka hit the ground rolling, still putting space between them as best he could even as Ira came crashing down with a new swing of the fist. With a screech of spinning rings, the Spymaster Regalia threw itself into the fray, slamming into Ira's side with guns blazing. He fought with the whirling mass of metal, wrestling it under the grip of the great gauntlet. Lightning roared and it closed down tight. The rings shattered, breaking into shards that bit into the stone all around. The Regalia went lop-sided, unable to keep momentum and breaking itself further with every frantic rotation. Pinned at the sides by Ira, it slowly ground to a halt, leaving little more than the command centre and the leather chair, the seat loaded up with grenades. Ira barely had time to bring a hand up before the wreckage ignited, the big man lost in a column of smoke.

Houka faded into existence, what was left of his uniform sparking for a few seconds, the last gasps of the fibers. They choked out in a pitiful flash of blue, leaving him in nought but shredded trousers and half a shirt. Adjusting broken glasses, he turned his back on the aftermath of his Regalia, walking away with the shadow of Ira behind him, striding from the blaze. Ryuko was already cursing up a storm, leading the crowds in maddening vitriol. Ten insults aimed at his manhood and counting, five towards the sanctity of his parent's relationship. He bore it quietly. Her stupidity never went further than skin-deep, and rarely left any significant brand of shame. Three years later, and all she could do was regurgitate the same old act.

"Pushing through the control with sheer muscle. I don't even know why I try doing anything clever around here. You reckless fools just push through, no matter the cost to yourselves. And for some reason, you are rewarded for it."

His lips barely moved, but his connection to the suit would ensure that Ira caught every word.

"Ah well, at least tell me you've pulled a muscle or some such."

"You've robbed me of my weaponry. Is that not enough for you?"

"Please Gamagoori, you shan't be needing it. Unless, of course, you do not believe that Satsuki will defeat Mankanshoku?"

"Of course she shall. And Ryuko as well. She's Satsuki Kiryuin."

"What delightful zealotry. What is it like, to be comfortable in such blind faith?"

"You doubt her strength?"

"I only believe in what can be measured and quantified. So far, my data tells me that she can defeat Sanageyama. Comparatively speaking, this means her chances are one in a thousand, as that is how any times Sanageyama has bested Ryuko, and that required her to be so furious she abandoned all pretence of humanity. Do you truly believe a one in a thousand chance is worth risking the earth upon?"

"I do."

"Well then, don't come crying to me when this all ends in tears."

"Even if I were to weep, I would wipe it away myself."

The edge beckoned.

"Thank you for your surface, Inumuta."

* * *

_They'd gathered at Houka's summons, the other boys still somewhat groggy, unaccustomed as they were to being awake at two in the morning. But any remnants of sleep were banished as the fires rose, the flames so bright that they illuminated even the highest parts of Honnouji._

_"What… what is this?"_

_"Our dear lady has decided that murder for the sake of competition no longer pleases her. Cameras caught her heading for the slums some twenty minutes ago, heading towards that suspected yakuza hideout. Seems as though she doesn't care who else gets caught in the blaze."_

_"Then we have to put a stop to this! The No-Stars are packed in so tightly that-"_

_"That the fires are already out of control, yes. It matters not. Ryuko's on a rampage. By fire or by her own hand, we're going to lose the entire northern slums at least by the time day breaks. I've got the Firefighter Club on standby ready to keep it from spreading any further from that. We'll just have to hope that she doesn't see them as interfering with whatever sick pleasure she's getting from this."_

_Ira dropped to his knees, pale and sweating._

_"Did you… did either of you see anything that could have led to this?"_

_"She's been off-kilter for a while now. Distracted and kind of absent ever since she came back from visiting her family. She keeps kicking my ass, but there's no life in her swings."_

_The big man's fist clenched, slammed against the floor as he rose, his face a grim mask of stone._

_"I'm heading out."_

_"Don't be ridiculous Gamagoori. If Sanageyama cannot defeat her after all this time, what choice do you have?"_

_"Then we will go together, put an end to this madness!"_

_"And if she defeats all three of us? Honnouji will be left with only a Life Fiber puppet as its ruler."_

_"If we allow her to continue, we have already let them entangle us in their strings."_

_"It doesn't have to be today. Give me time. I will locate Satsuki, bring her back. Lord knows she's the only one Ryuko's ever listened to. We can act as one, increase the chances of bringing her down."_

_"And how many will burn to death while you hunt a woman that doesn't want to be found?"_

_"The slums are rife with crime and undesirables; we can afford to- "_

_He was off his feet in a second, Ira's massive fist wrapped around his collar._

_"Inumuta, if you have any respect for the rule of law, you will not finish that thought."_

_He dropped Houka in a heap and made towards the main road, leaving his fellow Elites behind._

_"Gamagoori!"_

_Uzu's eyes were still bandaged, yet he had no problem looking Ira dead-on._

_"If there's one thing I can tell you, it's this. When she gets mad, she gets sloppy. I dunno if making her angry is the best idea right now, but if you're gonna have a chance, it's that."_

_Houka found his feet, rubbing at his neck._

_"And if we do not see you again, then Honnouji thanks you for your service. For whatever that is worth."_

_A silent nod, and Ira Gamagoori went off to die in service._

* * *

A sharp shove from behind, and he went over the side. A hanging rope of Life Fibers awaited him, offering safe passage to the ground. The crowd was absolutely livid as he touched the base earth, knives and clubs already out and thrown haphazardly at him as he made his way towards the exit tunnel.

Fools, all of them. Not one person on either side could look to the future, or plan beyond the next fight. Satsuki's minions worshiped her unconditionally and placed all of their bets on a single fight, instead of aiming for any sort of collaboration to bring the mad queen down. The hordes of Honnouji were so far gone that they could never become the effective army that had been planned out. And the data that the Naturals Elections had provided thus far predicted a sharp downturn from even this sorry state. If any sort of victory was to be obtained here, it would need to be one born from dramatic tactics.

His uniform had just enough power left in it for communications, and so he set about making a drastic call.


	12. Hurts Like Heaven

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AN: Thanks greatly to ssjSega for giving this story a page on TV Tropes. If anyone else is interested, you can find it under the Fan Works page for Kill La Kill.

Chapter 12: Hurts Like Heaven

_They gathered in the central courtyard, milling about in the shadow of the great spire that punctuated the city. From every corner of Japan they had come; some by invitation, some by interview. And some, like Mako, had simply been lucky enough to get in through the door first. The news that the REVOCS corporation was opening up a super-elite academy had driven families into Tokyo in droves, the idea of free food and housing simply by having their child attend such prestigious learning far too good to pass up. The lowest ring of the academy was already thick with people stepping over one another to claim their slice of the slums. Her own parents had been putting in work to get a place with just enough back alley to be shady, but not enough back alley that would-be clients wouldn't be able to find them for treatment. Last she'd seen them, her dad had been elegantly body-checking suckers while her mother went to town with handbag and fist, Mataro getting underfoot with wallets pouring from his arms._

_While they set about finding them a home, Mako had the first school assembly to attend, and friends to make. Flesh and blood friends, not just the ones in her head. So many opportunities! The pamphlet of all the school clubs unfolded for miles and miles, and you could make your own one up if you wanted. She'd always wanted to try her hand at tennis, and football, and basketball, and softball and-_

_"ATTENTION!"_

_Her train of thought was ripped off the tracks at the bellow, an absolute giant of man standing upon the spire, dressed in white with spikes upon his shoulders and stars across his chest. Legs locked together, backs straightened and heads raised at his presence, the crowd instinctively forced into good manners._

_"Students of Honnouji! Welcome to the first school assembly of this new academy. Initiation will take place shortly, but before that, you are to be blessed by a speech from your Student Council President. Open your hearts to the words of this school's benefactor and queen: Ryuko Kiryuin!"_

_He bowed his head and retreated, a much smaller girl stepping forward. No stars or spikes for her, but rather a simple white military suit with some gold plates for decoration. The sky shifted into a beautiful shade of warming red at her arrival, like every sunset had come at once._

_All thoughts of clubs tumbled away she locked eyes on her. Ryuko Kiryuin was simply enchanting, explaining the school's laws with such bombast that the entire crowd was willing to turn on their fellow man and fight for supremacy from the moment she introduced the concept. But it wasn't those exotic eyes, or that husky voice, or even how great her boobs looked in that jacket that drew Mako in._

_Never before in her life had she seen someone so powerful and amazing look so sad._

* * *

Ryuko stared at the hallway Houka had scurried into for a good long while. Whilst his defeat had technically fallen within the rules, his final moments could be labelled as little more than surrender, even if he'd lost all means of actually hurting the big bastard. But surrender was for pussies, cowards, and lesser bitches. The crowd had yet to get over the flaccid finish, the front rows starting to mount the barriers in their fury. They were settled with raised hands, Ryuko drawing their attentions.

"Dear pigs, no-one is as disappointed in that fight as I. So here's what's gonna happen. If you want to go hunt down Inumuta and kick the shit outta him, go ahead. I'll give his position to whoever brings his body back to me, alive or dead. But I promise you, you're gonna be missing out on something special, as the last of our beloved student council completely demolishes my worthless sister!"

There was an explosion of movement as the audience tore itself between those leaping over the barricades to steal Houka's place, and those fighting for the newly freed-up front row seats. As fistfights broke out and uniforms transformed, Ira returned to Satsuki's side, easing out the kinks in his arm.

"They'll be lucky to catch him. I didn't break free – he let me go."

"Exiting the stage on his own terms. Which brings about the question…"

"What does he have planned?"

"Exactly. More importantly, who does he plan to move against?"

"While I would like to be comfortable in that answer, it seems his faith in you is not what it once was. We should be on our guard, more so than before."

"No matter. Whatever is thrown at us, we shall endure and overcome. We have come too far to falter at this juncture."

In the centre of the arena, Mako was stretching, taking no more effort to warm up her body than she would for after-school sports practise. With the crowd settling down in their newly-acquired seats, Ryuko sneered at the two of them, fangs flashing with all the warmth of a piranha's grin.

"Come on Satsuki. Don't be afraid, she doesn't bite."

One final sweep of an oiled cloth, and Satsuki rose from her position, Bakuzan-Prime renewed for the battle to come. Mako moved onto shadowboxing as her challenger approached, her mouth moving a mile a minute with whispered chants of support for herself, unheard by any but her opponent. Satsuki took her place upon the platform, sliding Bakuzan-Prime into the sheath with one hand ready to draw it again.

"Mako Mankanshoku, I have an offer for you."

Mako paused mid-swing, nearly over-extending and losing balance. With a blur of arms, she brought herself back, shaking her hands out.

"Umm, you know I can't take a dive, right?"

"Then simply reconsider your position. You have worked tirelessly and endlessly for the sake of those less fortunate. Those who cannot stand up for themselves, those without the ability to make it even to the first star. To do so is admirable, to do so in a place of such violent conflict is nothing less than heroic. But events are unfolding that are bigger than this academy, and even such heroism will be drowned out if things continue as they are. Stand aside, and you will maintain your position on the student council when I take the throne, and we shall work together for the betterment of all."

"Nope."

From high above, Ryuko let loose a single bark of laughter. Nevertheless, Satsuki persisted.

"If this is about your relationship with my sister, then by all means- "

"It is, but it isn't, but it is. Lady Ryuko's my boss, but also my friend. You can betray your boss, but you can't betray your friends!"

"You see Satsuki, unlike you, Mako understands the value of loyalty. So piss off, and let her wipe the floor with you, okay? The fight begins!"

* * *

_It had been a long day. A really long day. Apparently, a whole bunch of criminals had been hiding out in the northern slums, and had been working with Ira Gamagoori to undermine Honnouji. Lady Ryuko had put an end to it, and made a big display to the whole school that traitors wouldn't be let go lightly. But for some reason, now all the One-Star and Two-Star students thought all the No-Star students were going to start a big betrayal, and had been throwing their weight around way more than usual. She'd been on time to Tennis Club and everything, and still she'd had to suffer the burden of target practise! They'd used the cast-iron balls too, which were only supposed to be for competitions._

_Still, the day was done and bruises healed with a little spit and polish. The only thing left for her today was picking up some milk and heading home. Thanks to the recent Naturals Election, Mataro had been able to steal a television, one with all the guts inside no less! The Mankanshoku family was currently enjoying five channels with only a smidgen of static to interrupt their shows._

_Her feet danced on the cracked paving stones, skipping past the local opium bar, the underground boxing ring and the building full of nice ladies that always had a man sneaking out the front door no matter what time of day it was. It was only as she turned the corner to make it home that she came to a stumbling halt, nearly spilling her goods in the process._

_Ryuko Kiryuin was standing outside her house._

_She was wearing her usual uniform, bright white with those cute golden tassels. Sometimes it turned into armour, yet it wasn't a Goku Uniform, since it didn't have any stars. Which was a weird thing for non-Goku Uniforms to do, really. She stood, arms crossed, looking up and down the street, but not really seeing anything. Then, with a small jolt, she turned to look at Mako, and beckoned her with the curl of a finger. Stiff-legged and quivering, Mako made her approach, hoping that she wasn't shaking the milk too hard. Cream was nice, but you didn't want it on your cereal. It'd go straight to her thighs._

_"H-hello, Lady Kiryuin."_

_There was something off about her. Her eyes, normally so bright and exotic, were far away, and the creepy smile on her face didn't have the same sort of joy in it as usual._

_"Huh. Cute."_

_Before Mako could stammer out the realisation of what had been said, Lady Kiryuin jerked to the side, looking away._

_"She's cute, so I called her cute, what's it to you?"_

_A pause, as if waiting for an answer._

_"Eat the entirety of my ass Jun, I do what I want."_

_"Lady Kiryuin, you have imaginary friends too?"_

_She was probably breaking some sort of law by grabbing her hand and making eye contact, but Lady Kiryuin took it in her stride, gently easing her off the balls of her feet and back to ground level._

_"He's not imaginary. He's a permanent resident inside my head. But enough about him. Let's talk about you."_

_She nodded towards the Mankanshoku clinic._

_"That your place?"_

_"Yes, it is!"_

_Lady Kiryuin threw an arm around her shoulders, leaning in close. Mako suddenly regretted not having enough time to brush her teeth that morning. In her defence, her futon was super comfortable._

_"See… sorry, what was your name?"_

_"Mako Mankanshoku." She got out; mouth covered with both hands._

_"Well, Mako, I'm assuming you heard about what happened the other night? How a bunch of No-Stars tried to revolt against me?"_

_"Yup, but mum said I slept straight through it, and they were super worried cause they couldn't get me up, but really it wasn't worse than trying to sleep through a Naturals Election and- "_

_Her hands were pinned to her mouth by a long finger._

_"Hush up sweetie. See, I've been getting more and more reports about troublemakers. Ne'er-do-wells. Criminals, in general. And while I've been content to let you pigs swim in your own muck, when the shit hits the fan and flies upwind, well, then it becomes my problem. So it looks like I need to do some more tidying up, understood?"_

_She did, but she didn't want to nod. Lady Kiryuin's eyes seemed to be getting darker and darker, wild spirals like loose wool, looking so far away that she wondered if she could even see her at all._

_"But I'm feeling generous, and also, a wee bit bored. So here's what we're gonna do, Mako Mankanshoku. You and I are going to have a fight. If you win, I'll leave this place alone. If I win, then we continue as planned. Sound fair?"_

_The finger moved away, allowing Mako to take a really deep breath._

_"Can I put this away first?"_

_Lady Kiryuin's eyes drifted to the grocery bag._

_"Of course. Wouldn't want it getting too warm now, would we?"_

_And with a pat on the back and a slap on her butt, Lady Kiryuin pushed her towards home, snickering to herself. Her family were crowded about the curtains, peeling themselves away from the gaps to dogpile her as she made it through the door._

_"Mako, you can't fight her, that's crazy!"_

_"I'll go out there sweetheart. Your old man used to be quite the boxer!"_

_"Honey, you sprain your back getting out of bed these days."_

_"Guts!"_

_"Everyone, quiet!"_

_They broke away, allowing her to put the milk in its proper place and go into her bedroom, coming out in her gym gear, a bandanna about her forehead._

_"Alright, I'm heading out!"_

_Her family looked amongst themselves, then swept in for a massive hug once more._

_"We'll be right behind you sis."_

_"Kick her in the cooch. Women hate that."_

_"Remember, there's no shame in giving up, so long as you did your best. We're proud of you either way."_

_"Guts!"_

_Lady Kiryuin hadn't moved, looking her up and down as she approached. Her family had given up on subterfuge, plastering themselves up against the window._

_"So, ready to fight?"_

_"I am! Cause I'm fighting for my home, my family, and everyone here! I'm gonna fight with love, and that makes me the strongest!"_

_Lady Kiryuin cocked her head a flat ninety degrees to the right._

_"You are so adorable. I might actually be sad when you're gone."_

_She bounced back, rolling her shoulders._

_"Well then, shall we get started? I'll be nice, and let you have the first swing."_

_"Right!"_

_Mako ran in, closed her eyes and kicked with all her might. There was a thunderous crash, the tearing of brick and metal. Raptured pipes and the spray of water. When she dared open her eyes again, the pavement had been carved open, buildings at the end of the street crumbling down with a heavy haze of dust filling the air. She was faintly aware of hollering and cheering, No-Star residents hanging from their buildings and punching the air. And then, above it all, a tremendous scream._

_"What the actual fuck just happened?"_

_Lady Kiryuin was pulling herself out from the remains of a gambling parlour, her hair brightened with dust and her vision suddenly very clear. She found her feet, using a pachinko machine to steady her quaking legs. She was talking to herself again._

_"No, I didn't see what happened. One second she was there, the next we're here. What'dya mean you didn't see either? Great unspeakable alien being from beyond the stars, and you can't even follow one little No-Star girl? She shouldn't be able to hit us!"_

_There was a pause, and Mako debated the fairness of hitting someone talking to themselves. Probably best not. She wouldn't want to be hit during an important conversation. The alien twist was pretty fun though._

_"Fuck you Jun, just fuck you!"_

_She stalked out of the rubble, dust cascading from her form as she strode back the way she'd flown._

_"Alright, I was playing nice since you're cute with fat tits and a butt that won't quit, but if you're going to be a bitch about this and kick me in the clit, then I'm kicking this up a notch. Life Fiber Synchronise!"_

_There was an unholy blast of blue light, and when the spots cleared from Mako's vision, Lady Kiryuin had taken on her battle mode. Fabric became armoured plates, thigh-highs into knightly greaves. The tassels on her shoulders disappeared, replaced with two great spires, each with an unblinking orange eye. She flexed taloned fingers, lowered her profile._

_"Let's play, Mako Mankanshoku."_

_With the crunch of concrete and a deafening boom, the queen of Honnouji went for the throat, a strange sort of light returning to her eyes._

* * *

Satsuki and Mako danced upon the stage, neither one pressing too far forward nor retreating too far back. Bakuzan-Prime snapped out a dozen times, yet never came close to the Elite. Likewise, if Satsuki pressed the advantage, Mako would retreat, even if it meant she was dodging lightning-fast cuts on the edge of oblivion. After a time, they found themselves in the centre of the arena once more, Mako's breath slightly ragged.

"Do you understand, Mako Mankanshoku? I've already seen through the trick you played on my associate. Thin Life Fibers, barely thicker than a hair. Your uniform protrudes them, floats them towards the opponent, slipping into openings in the body. While they try to avoid your fists, you have already won the battle, altering their perception so that they never have a chance to avoid you, nor strike in return. A noteworthy ability, but it shall not work on me. So, what now? The difference in our stamina- "

"Stop letting her talk Mako, that's how she gets you! Rush her down, I know you can do it!"

Ryuko's words put a fire in the girl, and she went roaring in, throwing three punches in the time it would take even a normal Three-Star student to throw one. If there was such a thing as a normal Three-Star student. Ryuko might have been mad, but she was correct. With Mako being far more aggressive, there was less space for Iaido cuts, and already the strings were starting their slow advance once more. Ducking under a punch, Satsuki went for the short swords. Gako and Koryu were quicker, forcing Mako to reconsider as she came rushing in, redirecting as not to take a slice to the chest.

Now they were going blow for blow, each cut and swing so fast that they were little more than a blur to the audience. Mako was starting to sweat, her tongue poking just so out the corner of her mouth as she kept Satsuki fixed with a look of intense concentration.

"I am curious, Mako Mankanshoku. How skewed must your moral compass be to stand in the wake of mass murder, and spend your time not fighting it but instead building a model garden of society while the world burns around you?"

There was a flicker, and a heavy-handed blow rocked the side of her skull, knocking her head over backside and sent tumbling away. The ringing in her ear almost drowned out the roar of the crowd, but it couldn't cover Ryuko's sheer adulations as she cheered on her Elite. Regaining her balance, Satsuki ignored the pounding of blood in her cheek and re-entered the fray.

* * *

_She was letting Lady Kiryuin down again. Ever since that fateful duel, her queen had inducted her into her council, granted her family a mansion and frankly, spoiled her rotten. And yet, she just couldn't live up to her expectations. She was only doing half the paperwork as Sanageyama had been when he'd run both halves of the clubs, and yet she needed twice the assistance to get through it all each week, and that was if she didn't fall asleep while scratching out line after line of repeated documentation._

_And while she was able to wear a Three-Star uniform just fine, whatever power had caused her to go toe-to-toe with Lady Kiryuin, even for just a short time, had fled her. She was lucky if she could stand up and please her lady for even a few minutes before overheating. Ogure was just as new as she was, yet she had no such issues, even if Lady Kiryuin had brawled with her only a few times before writing her off as boring. She'd been forced to sit out every Naturals Elections so far, protected in the student council chambers for her own good._

_And all of that might not have been so bad, but what was really awful was knowing that Lady Kiryuin liked her, and not even knowing if she liked her back. Her queen was forever staring at her face or her boobs or her butt, and while she was beautiful; truly beautiful, every time Mako tried to put the idea of them doing sexy things together in her head it just didn't click. Maybe if there was some sort of confession from the queen, everything would line up and she could picture herself kissing a woman who loved fighting so much more than anything in life. Especially other people's lives._

_But there was the disconnect. Lady Kiryuin never seemed to be with them in the room, unless she was fighting and killing. The rest of the time, she was just… absent, cursing and glowering her way through the motions of school life like an angry robot, always looking away at something that not even the students who stood beside her could see. She was looking there again today, sitting bolt-upright and staring out the window while Mako tried to grind her way through the new club budgets, even though her eyes were drooping and her hand aching from writing so many tiny numbers._

_"Mankanshoku, are you free this evening?"_

_Despite the monotone of her lady's question, Mako nearly jumped clean out of her skin in surprise._

_"T-this evening, Lady Kiryuin?"_

_"Yeah, this evening. It's Friday. Do you have plans or not?"_

_"Umm, no, not- "_

_"Good. Come to my estate at nine. Here's the address."_

_A slip of paper slid across the desk, seemingly of its own volition as her lady finished her work and made for the exit. An address had been scrawled across in that familiar scrappy handwriting._

_"Umm, can I ask… what for, ma'am?"_

_She paused in the doorframe, looked back. At Mako's face, her chest, back to the face._

_"Use your imagination."_

_High heels went clacking down the hallway, leaving Mako to sit there and sweat._

_***_

_It was a rare day anyone was home. Ever since the Mankanshokus became filthy stinking rich, they barely used the estate allotted to them, each member of the family preferring to go out into the world and let it pleasure them as they pleased. It was a stroke of luck that her mother was home that evening, the one person she was comfortable going to for help in this matter. As much as she loved the men of the household, they were hardly qualified for this sort of talk. Sending the handmaidens out, they had sat in the reflection of the great bureau and talked. Well, Mako had talked. Her mother just reapplied her make-up and hopefully caught half of what was tumbling nervously out her mouth._

_"Well Mako, I think it's pretty simple."_

_"It is? Really?"_

_Lipstick snapped, and the painted face of her mother leaned in far too close for comfort as she painted a slash of red across Mako's lips._

_"There's no shame in sleeping your way to the top sweetie. If Lady Kiryuin wants to spend an evening with you, then let her. When the morning comes, and if you do a really good job, maybe she'll start overlooking all the areas you've been letting her down in. Besides, I thought you liked girls."_

_"But-but-but-but…"_

_"Mako, we've all been very patient with you, and I know you've been finding your new responsibilities difficult, but life isn't always happiness and rainbows, and it certainly won't be if we all get dunked back down into the slums, now will it?"_

_A horn blared from outside, and the thing wearing her mother's face hurried to her feet, selecting a new designer handbag from the rack and throwing her old one upon the pile, ready to be disposed of come the next rubbish collection day._

_"Well, I'm off out for the evening. Have fun with Lady Kiryuin and if worst comes to worst, try biting her. She seems like the type."_

_The door slammed shut, leaving Mako alone once more._

_***_

_It was nine-thirty by the time she'd worked up the nerve to call a limousine and head on over to her awkward, weird-feeling date with destiny. Lady Kiryuin's estate was even bigger than even the largest of the Three-Star mansions, and felt three times as lonely, sitting out here away from Honnouji. When she rang the doorbell, it echoed all the way through the house. It didn't take long for Lady Kiryuin to answer, shrouded in silk and white lingerie._

_"You're late."_

_"Sorry." She flinched at her own cowardice._

_"Whatever. Come on in."_

_The inside was surprisingly restrained for a rich person's house. Minimal furniture with only a couple of opulent paintings. Lady Kiryuin standing at the shoulder of a ghastly woman in white, another girl standing parallel, blonde hair extending all the way down. Something about her big blue eyes and too-wide smile gave Mako the heebie-jeebies._

_"My mother, and my younger sister, Nui."_

_"You're all… so beautiful."_

_Lady Kiryuin made a half-grunt of agreeance, then gently took Mako by the shoulder and began to guide her. Mako realised too late that she had forgotten that she was supposed to be panicking as Lady Kiryuin eased her into the bedroom. Yet more white décor and silks._

_Lips pressed against her neck, her overnight bag escaping her grasp and flicked off into a free chair. None would have believed her if she told them the tyrant of Honnouji could be so gentle, and yet with every item of clothing discarded and every kiss along her flesh, the friends in Mako's head kept protesting that this couldn't be right, that something was terribly wrong here. As they hit the bed and the last few articles threatened to come away, she finally found her voice._

_"Wait."_

_"No, no waiting."_

_"Please, Lady Kiryuin…"_

_"Call me Ryuko."_

_"Wait!"_

_She didn't mean to hit her, but it came out that way, Lady Kiryuin folding over backwards and landing on the floor with a thud. She looked back up, and there was hellfire in that stare, deep and painful. But she couldn't stop to be afraid now._

_"I'm sorry. I'm really, really sorry. I want to do sexy things with you, sort of. But I… I don't like this. It feels wrong, and I don't know why, and I wish I did, and I wish I could just stop disappointing you but…"_

_"But everyone does."_

_Lady Kiryuin was the kind of woman that could walk through a battlefield without flinching. She was the kind of superwoman that could fight an army or a mountain of paperwork and come out on top without so much as a hint of sweat upon her brow. She ran the most prestigious and violent academy the world had ever known and for not one moment seemed burdened by that duty, even when she had to put her own subjects to the flame for the betterment of all._

_The woman in front of her looked broken. She was surrounded in white, yet no light came out of her. And while Mako had been expecting rage equal to that which had destroyed Ira Gamagoori, it was with small, hollow movements that she stood up, retrieved her bra and padded to the door, not looking back._

_"Get out. Don't come back. You're still a part of the council, but I'm not covering for you anymore. Next Naturals Election, you're on your own. If I were you, I'd try to find some of that fire you had the day we met."_

* * *

Satsuki had taken unacceptable amounts of damage in this fight. She wasn't even sure if Mako knew what she was doing herself, but every so now and then, she'd move quicker than what the parameters of what her skill should have been, and without a tell to mark it by, she had been hit each and every time. Uzu would have been frothing at the mouth, were he still conscious. She was giving back as good as she got, and Mako had been forced to give up on her illusionary tricks, but so long as the fight continued this way, her chances of defeating Ryuko dipped lower and lower. She was going to win – Mako's exhausted breathing was proof of that – but an exhausted and wounded animal could be far more dangerous than one that was hale and whole, and her opponent had the burden of Ryuko's love upon her shoulders. And love made people do stupid things for little gain.

A flicker, and Mako tried to knock their heads together at light-speed. Satsuki caught that one, bending over backwards and converting the motion into a cartwheel kick that snapped Mako clean in the jaw. The Elite staggered back, knees buckling and body swaying in the wind. Satsuki took advantage and launched forward, planting a knee firmly into the midriff. Mako collapsed, flopping onto the arena floor, her chest bobbing a mile a minute as she tried to grasp at a hint of air. The tip of Koryu found her throat as Satsuki looked skyward to her sister.

"Your champion has fallen. Call it."

And now for the explosion of rage, or the cold cutting of ties. With Ryuko in her current state, either was a distinct possibility. But then, before either possibility came into fruition, a single clap echoed across the quiet of the stadium.

"Ma-ko. Ma-ko. Ma-ko."

There, in the front row of the No-Star seating, children. Slapping their hands together over and over, calling the Elite's name each time as though they were at a pantomime, not the opening salvo for the battle for humanity. The chant grew, No-Star students and their teary-eyed parents throwing their voices in twice as hard, pattered cries for Lady Mankanshoku to get up, cheers and rattles all the way to the back rows. And it spread, infecting the One-Star seating, students standing up and hollering that she couldn't be done just yet, that she was stronger than this. And still it went, and now even the cold hearts of Two-Star students ignited, those directly under Mako's purview demanding an encore and bullying those who didn't follow her to join in the chanting or suffer the consequences. Standing above it all, Ryuko just smiled oh so sweetly, and kept on clapping.

Silver-purple light erupted from Mako's chest, and Satsuki had just enough time to utter a rare curse before a platinum fist rocketed up, nearly tearing her nose clean from her face.

* * *

_Her former home was burning. Lady Kiryuin had gone off that morning and put the remains of the slums to the torch, and had yet to return to the student council. And all weak little Mako could do was stand there, and watch the fires rise._

_"For what it's worth, it's not your fault."_

_Houka Inumuta typed upon his laptop with the tired expression of a man watching history repeat. The others had departed to do what they could; Maiko taking the helm of fire control and Uzu running undercover missions to help No-Stars escape. Apparently there had been a plan on the off-chance this happened again. Mako wasn't part of the plan._

_"Trying to blame Ryuko Kiryuin for her violence is like trying to take the scorpion into account: it's simply in their nature to destroy. Even if you had slept with her, she might have set the slums ablaze out of happiness. After all, she's not even human."_

_"What?"_

_"That is a deep and potentially terrifying question."_

_He clicked the lid shut, leant forward across the coffee table, evaluating her for a moment. He came to an unseen decision, and carried on speaking._

_"And one that you don't have to be a part of. Let us be frank Mankanshoku, you are not cut out for this lifestyle. You are not academically inclined, nor do you possess the brutality needed for your position. You are uniquely positioned here because somewhere in that lump of steel wool masquerading as a heart, she felt a kick of lust. You do not have to play this part any longer. You do not have to suffer for her cruelties. I have associates that can extract you and your family from Honnouji within the day. You will have to relocate to Osaka, but you will be as safe as any of us can be in this current situation."_

_"Wait, go back. Lady Kiryuin isn't a person?"_

_"Are you sure you want to find out?"_

_The bravest thing she ever did as a council member up until that point, and it was to bob her head._

_And so he explained everything that had been told to him by Ryuko's older sister. That their lady was a science experiment gone horribly right, the original mission of Honnouji, and how she couldn't trust the shirt on her back. Why Ira Gamagoori had rebelled, and that the fires engulfing the slums were no great act of sacrifice to keep the peace, but instead little more than the actions of a heartless child, igniting ants with a magnifying glass. He spoke of the leader lost to them, and of the greater horrors that lay in wait even if Ryuko was removed from her throne._

_"Like I said, your part in this has ended. The wisest thing you can do is scrape your savings clean and make ready to depart. I can have my people informed as soon as we're finished here."_

_"She's not happy."_

_"Mankanshoku, I realise that this has been a bit much to bear, but I need your head out of the clouds right now."_

_Pieces clicked into place, hazy thoughts from across her time on the council aligned. With each little pace and mutter and push from the friends inside her head, the image of Lady Kiryuin broke down, and reassembled itself as a girl kissing her neck, begging to be called Ryuko._

_Standing under the spotlight that illuminated the grand piano, an old habit caught up to her, hands criss-crossed overhead._

_"I get it. I understand now! She's not happy, and she never has been! No wonder she can't enjoy her school life, she's been walking around knowing that she's not fully human, and not had anyone to share it with! She doesn't know that you know, so she feels super isolated and all mixed up inside, and it comes out in weird alien ways. Everyone needs a friend, and Ryuko doesn't even have one that's not inside her own head! Ah, that's why she tried to do sexy things with me, because she doesn't know what friendship is! Oh, that's why it was super weird and uncomfortable, because, well, she was kind of desperate! And it's not good to take advantage of desperate people! That's how you get cultists, and no-one likes a cult! So what we need to do, is take the super-desperate Ryuko Kiryuin, and become her friends! Then maybe all of her alien bits will calm down, and we can have a proper school again!"_

_The spotlight flickered off, Houka striding away from the light switch._

_"That is certainly… a theory. But it does not change facts. Human, alien or in-between, she has committed great crimes against her own people. The kind that cannot be ignored. Even if you were to drag a spark of empathy out from her, who would be able to take her to task for her actions? Moreover, do you really want to be the one in the firing line? Your position on this council is tenebrous as things stand, let alone with you performing a one-eighty and suddenly cuddling up to her. Even a murderous moron such as her will grow suspicious. And as you've seen, time and time again, annoying her over even the slightest perceived acts of failure can earn you cruelty like nothing this world has seen."_

_"We have to try. We have to make things right, not just for the people she's hurt, but for everyone that could get munched up by the Life Fibers. Maybe… maybe when they're all gone, she'll be able to understand what she's done, and we can find a way to pay it all back."_

_She stared at the spiked knuckles of her own uniform, trying to imagine it swallowing her whole. It was not a pleasant thought, the friends inside her head going all shivery._

_"I… have to be stronger. Maybe people will keep getting hurt, but didn't her big sister want to save as many people as she could? I think Ryuko deserves a chance to be saved as well."_

_The laptop flicked open again, Houka tapping away, not even looking at her now._

_"Do as you please. I have made my offer, and now I can wash my hands of you. But when she grows sick of your pity and tears you in two, don't say I didn't try to stop this foolishness."_

_"I won't. I shan't. I'll be the best friend she ever had, whether she likes it or not!"_

_The doors to the student council chambers clicked open, a tide of smoke and charred meat flooding into the room as Ryuko returned, still in full battle dress._

_"If I didn't know better, I'd swear they knew I was coming. Fucking roaches kept dodging me."_

_"Lady Kiryuin!"_

_Mako snapped to attention in front of her, heels together and a notebook in hand. Hellfire curled around her, heat from the former slums still radiating off Ryuko's body as she stalked laps around her._

_"Mankanshoku. I'm surprised to see you here. Figured you would have fucked off ahead of time."_

_"Sorry ma'am, I can't do that until someone boots me off the council. But I don't intend to lose from now on. If you're still upset with me, then we can go to the training room, and hit my uniform until it remembers how to work."_

_"Don't threaten me with a good time Mankanshoku."_

_Talons closed in, wrapping her neck from behind. Mako breathed through the pain, summoning the image of the broken girl in the bedroom._

_"Yes… ma'am. But, before I do, can I ask a question?"_

_"Fuck it, why not?"_

_"Okay, here's the question. What's your favourite snack?"_

_The grip about her throat paused, going slack in genuine surprise. The Ryuko reflected in Houka's glasses looked deeply confused._

_"Lemons." She answered after a time._

_"Like, lemon sherbets, or…"_

_"No, just… a whole lemon."_

_The claws retreated, but the warm imprints still beat a heavy pulse upon her neck. Mako flipped open the notebook as though nothing had happened, and began to fill out the first section of her plan._

_"I see, I see. I totally get where you're coming from. I really like cheeses, but my family thinks it's weird to just bite into a block of cheddar. But it's just so good!"_

_She dared to whip around, looking Ryuko dead on as though nothing was wrong. The tyrant of Honnouji stared at her blankly for a moment, before reaching out and grabbing her by the scuff of her uniform._

_"Enough of this. You promised me a fight, and that's what I'm going to get, understand?"_

_"Yes ma'am!" She saluted, letting herself be dragged away to the training room._

* * *

The Platinum Regalia sat straight up, a primal drumbeat pumping through the air as it rose. Mako was feeding on the pulse of the crowd, the shimmering tattoos almost blinding to look upon as it pointed Satsuki down.

"I… will protect everyone's happiness." It growled, Mako's voice lost under layers of modulation. Satsuki swept into a defensive stance, knocking a fist aside as it pounced upon her, arms a blur of wild punching. A hundred strikes came from both sides, rapid-fire punches with no end as Satsuki backpedalled and deflected over and over. There was no room for her to counter-attack, every movement focused on not getting lain out in a single blow.

Then, a flicker. Satsuki braced herself for one of those super-fast movements, and received nothing. The Platinum Regalia watched her for a second, and then, vanished from sight. Then, barely a split-second later, pain exploded in the back of her skull, and she was sent skipping across the surface of the arena, scattered towards the edge. The world whined in dull echo, her tongue thick in her mouth and own breaths deafening as she tried to regain her bearings. Vibrations thudded underneath, and as she rolled over Mako was charging at her once more, barbarian hair rippling behind with every stomp.

She made to her feet, diving away from the double-handed slam that would have cracked her head in two. Another dodge, and she had enough room to throw slices of energy back, Mako forced to endure as azure cuts rippled against her forearms. Another barrage was thrown, this one taken chest-on as the Regalia locked sights on her once more.

A flicker. Satsuki let herself fall; swords abandoned as a shockwave of wind exploded overhead. Palms flat against the ground, she threw her momentum into a full-body kick, slamming the flats of her geta right into Mako's face. As the Elite recoiled, Satsuki spun in the air, drawing Bakuzan-Prime and bringing it clean down the muscular armoured chest in a single cut. She landed with a wobble, but the advantage was seized, cut after cut flickering across Mako, Life Fibers spilling out with every strike. With a warrior's cry, she brought her sword down once more, a final blow meant to split the uniform in two.

The blade was caught, blood leaking from Mako's fist as her uniform warbled, trying to hold its transformation. Patches of white bled through the platinum, a round and puffy face showing through the cracks in the warrior's mask.

"ORA!"

A mighty right-handed swing ripped out, aimed at taking Satsuki's head clean off. It found its target absent, Satsuki ducking down and letting loose a punch of her own, catching Mako dead in the throat. The Elite staggered back, coughing and spluttering as Satsuki went in for the kill. Bakuzan-Prime was sheathed one moment, then, with a lightning-fast step forward, Satsuki stood behind Mako, blade drawn and the Platinum Regalia ripping at the seams. She slid the sword back into place, and as it returned to the sheath with a soft click, the uniform tore itself in two, becoming dust on the wind.

And yet Mako still stood, wavering in the middle of the arena in nought but her underwear. Eyes closed and a peaceful expression upon her face, it seemed that she had managed to fall asleep standing up. There was a clack of heels as Ryuko dropped down. Not even sparing Satsuki a glance, she scooped Mako up into her arms, leaping back up to her throne in a single bound and vanishing into the student council chambers.

Ira was beside her in an instant, ignoring the boos and jeers of the crowd, the colourful insults and outright accusations of ruination as he attended to her injuries. Already here came the bandages and rubbing alcohols, an uncharacteristic lack of respect as he held her in place with one hand, mending with the other.

"Ira, please, I'm fine."

"With all due respect milady, you can't see the back of your head."

"So long as it remains in one piece, I shall endure."

She let him fuss for a second, ignoring the crawl of her skin at the proximity. She would not let old wounds push him away from cleaning up new ones. There was a sigh, and she felt her ponytail fall back into place.

"So, will I survive?"

"It is not as bad as I feared. Your vision is fine, I hope?"

"There is a slight ringing in my left ear from the first blow, but it will pass. My senses are unimpaired otherwise."

She'd never seen that expression aimed at her. Normally such concern was reserved for those they'd helped on the road, to those who had suffered at the worst of REVOCS' cruelties. It was oddly heart-warming to see it cast her way for once.

"Do not worry yourself Ira. This is more damage than I expected to take, but I am still in fighting shape. I can still take Ryuko to task."

"I'm sure you can. But until I see her fall, I'm afraid I shall continue to wring my hands. I expected Sanageyama's strength, but that…"

"She's lacking in technique, but does not lack for conviction. She'll make a fine ally in the battles to come."

Ira's face was set in a thin line, leaving Satsuki to wonder what was being left unsaid.

* * *

She rarely used her quarters within the student council, preferring the measure of freedom allowed by her own estate. But this disused chamber was far closer, and Mako needed a place to rest. Tucked into the queen-sized bed, she looked for all the world as though she'd simply had a long day at school, not a battle to the death. But that was Mako in a nutshell, really. Planting a kiss to her forehead, Ryuko rose from her side.

"Soroi, keep an eye on her for me, would you?"

"As you wish, ma'am."

Better for him to remain within these walls. The old man still had a measure of love for Satsuki, and Ryuko didn't have it in her to make him watch as she gave the traitor exactly what she deserved. She swept into the inner chamber, to an office never used. A resting place for bad memories. Many of them had been trashed and broken in peaks of fury, but the bastard sword was still mounted to the wall, a thin crust of dust resting on the upward edge, spoiling the pure white of the blade.

_"Really? That sword?"_

"Call it dramatic irony. She brought it for me. Might as well give it back, right into her guts."

She retrieved it from the wall, the dust coming away with a single practise swipe through the air. The blade was just as gleaming as the day she'd received it. And yet, it felt so much heavier in her hand than when she'd been a child.

"Let's go Junketsu. Time to end this."

_"Let the feast begin."_


	13. Killer Queen

Chapter 13: Killer Queen

_"Holy shit, holy shit, holy shit, holy shit!"_

_"Ryuko, language."_

_"Sorry mum… holy crap Satsuki, I can't believe you actually got me a sword!"_

_"Indeed. Why did you think this to be a suitable present again?"_

_"I am simply at the whims of the birthday girl's requests."_

_Ryuko's birthday was the foremost event on the Kiryuin family calendar. Nui's came in at second, and Satsuki's would have discarded completely if not for Ryuko's insistence on making as much a fuss out of the day as possible. If asked about her age, Ragyo usually laughed it off and cited the old axiom of age being little more than a number. With her birth certificate mysteriously absent from all public records and the hospital she'd been born at mysteriously burned to the ground some fifteen years ago, the Kiryuin children, plus one Harime, would double down on Mother's Day tributes in lieu of an actual day of birth to celebrate._

_But today was Ryuko's day, and Satsuki was enjoying a rare victory for her sister's twelfth birthday. The other presents were quickly falling by the wayside as the two-handed sword was unsheathed, a blade of pure white metal revealed to the family. The guard and handle were of similar exquisite quality, decorated in gold and made to fit Ryuko's hand exactly. And fit it did, as Ryuko immediately pulled the blade free, gripped it tightly in both hands, and any child with a sword or suitably large stick is wont to do, began swinging it about at random._

_The rest of the family slipped between the clumsy swings with ease, falling back to a safe distance as Ryuko began imitating various sword battles she'd seen on the television. Nui looked more than a little miffed that her unopened present was being overlooked._

_"Mama, I wanna sword too."_

_"Firstly, it's I want, not I wanna. Secondly, I Want Never Gets. And thirdly, I do not understand for the life of me why you girls are so obsessed with swords. A Kiryuin takes matters into her own hands, be that on the battlefield or in a board meeting."_

_"Because they're cool!" Ryuko chirped, casting her arm wide and carving a thick tear across the mantlepiece, stone clips scattering across the living room. She flinched, cringing as she returned the sword to its home._

_"Sorry."_

_Ragyo did little more than sigh, pad across the carpet and take Ryuko's face in both hands, squeezing her cheeks playfully with a gentle warning not to do it again. With their mother distracted, Nui flipped from one side of the room to the other, standing at Satsuki's side in the blink of an eye. A thin arm snaked around her waist; the eleven-year old looking up at her with the utmost picture of innocence._

_"Satsuki, where'd you get the sword?"_

_"I shall put you in touch with my blacksmith. Did you have a particular blade in mind?"_

_"Oh, I'm sure any type will do the job just fine."_

_"A rapier then. It would certainly fit with your sensibilities."_

_"That's the stab-stab-stab kind, right?"_

_"It is mostly used for thrusting attacks, yes. We shall look up some fencing videos later, see if the style meets your tastes."_

_"Aww, thanks Satsuki. You're the best."_

_The sugary words would have been better received if not for the immense pressure on her hip, bones protesting from the icy-cold side-hug. On the other side of the room, Ryuko broke free from Ragyo, wiping sloppy kisses away and returning to the matter of her new present._

_"Hey Satsuki, your sword's called Bakuzan, right? I should come up with a cool name for this bad boy as well."_

_"Ooh, ooh, ooh! Call it Lifetaker!" Nui offered._

_"That's a good one! Oh, what about Hearteater?"_

_"Blooddrinker!"_

_"Widow's Wail!"_

_"World Eater!"_

_"Skullsplitter!_

_"Pig Sticker!"_

_"Murder Death Scythe!"_

_"But it's a sword?"_

_"Oh yeah."_

_Ryuko's gaze fell upon Satsuki and Nui, the way the youngest sister seemed to cuddle into the eldest. A sweet smile crept up the corners of her mouth._

_"Wait, I've got it. I'll call it…"_

* * *

The vibrations echoed all the way down to the bay of Honno City, the waters around the great mountain of Honnouji churning with each stomp that came down from on high. At the peak, each crunch rippled through the crowds with a demand for attention, with even the most incensed students ceasing their protests at the last match's outcome as the pressure wrapped around their hearts and bid them to stay still. The vibrations quickened, the pulse growing ever-faster with the clack of high heels granting an edge to the terror of the audience. In the heart of the arena, Ira's face was but a pale mask of stone, gauntlets discarded to beg more speed out of his task. With the last bandage tied and the visible bruises salved, he reaffixed his armour. They rose to their feet as one, staring up at the peak of Honnouji, those dread echoes hammering through their systems, rattling the bones and clutching at their hearts.

"She comes."

"Ira, should the worst come to pass…"

"It shan't."

"If the worst should come to pass, and I am without a chance at victory, then flee. Run to the Safe Zone, collect Nonon and leave this place. Meet with the Nudists, abandon the war, do what you must. But do not throw yourself into a suicide mission on my behalf."

"With all due respect Satsuki, I am your shield and your spear." The old scars went into a frenzy at the idea of escaping, that maddening itch tearing across his body, a thousand little scratches made by phantom claws. "This I have promised you, and if there is even the slightest chance that I could rescue you, then I shall. But as you said, that is the worst-case scenario."

 _"It must be serious. You called me Satsuki."_ She went to speak again, but the cute turn of phrase was swallowed up by the oncoming storm, the entire academy shaking under the thunderous stampede as Ryuko burst out from the student council chambers. Not yet transformed, she threw herself from the peak at full force, hanging in the air for a single dazzling moment of blood-red incandescence. Then she came crashing down, carving a heavy groove into the surface of the arena as she ground along it on her knees. Bakuzan-Prime slid neatly over the space above her chest, and when she burst up back to her feet, it was with Ira dragging along behind her, long fingers buckling the metal about his neck.

"Ira Gamagoori, you're disqualified!"

Not breaking pace, she cast her arm back and threw him with all the ease of a major league baseball player making a game-winning pitch. The spectator seats exploded into splinters as he went crashing into the side of the stadium, and when the dust cleared, he found himself surrounded on all sides by hungry Two-Star students. Ryuko dusted her hands off, strutting the edge of the arena with nary a glance given to Satsuki, even when her sister joined her side to see if Ira had survived the impact.

"Dear pigs, you might have noticed that we've had far too many outsiders rising through the ranks of our Naturals Elections. And as these two were never going to give us a satisfying winner's finals, I figured that should mix the formula up a bit. As such, here's what's going to happen. Mako Mankanshoku keeps her seat upon the council, as does Uzu Sanageyama. The conditions for taking Houka Inumuta's place have already been set, and anyone interested in hunting him down have already gone at it. But as Maiko Ogure has already made like a tree and fucked off, I think it's only fair that our former-former Disciplinary Chair is the target for that position."

Already the remaining Two-Star students were circling, the message coming through loud and clear. Uniforms shimmered with rainbow glow, blood pumping in anticipation for the fight to come. Ira's boltgun roamed from target to target, lightning dancing about his power fist with a heady whine of power rising.

"Here's the game." Ryuko continued. "All of you in the audience have until I'm done pulverising my dear elder sister to put him down. Whoever brings him to me, dead or alive, gets the last seat on the council. Your time starts… now!"

She'd barely fired the starting flare before the audience descended into chaos. A hundred Two-Star students threw themselves into the dogpile, the Chess Club President receiving a haymaker for his trouble and set spiralling away. Ryuko looked upon her works and smiled, far too widely as she turned back to Satsuki.

"My my sis. Your little boy-toy gets thrown to the wolves, and you don't go to help him? Not even a heart-felt name screamed in worry as he's beaten to death?"

Satsuki chanced a glance in Ira's direction, watching as he burst from the pile with the Calculus Club President's head engulfed in the power fist, delivering a viscous headbutt to the nose of the Physics Club President as he waded through a tide of flesh and cloth. She returned her gaze to Ryuko, one hand falling upon the hilt of Bakuzan-Prime.

"He has survived worse. He will conquer this."

Ryuko's toothy smile faded, replaced with a sneer.

"Of course. Why do I even expect anything less of you?"

She stamped down hard, both sisters leaping away from the edge as bright red metal walls rose from every side of the octagonal arena. They extended well above both competitors, those in the crowd not currently seeking glory by tearing Ira to pieces welcoming their arrival with a bloodthirsty chant of "Cage! Cage! Cage!"

Miles away, Aikuro Mikisugi uttered a rare curse, and threw his thinking into how to best aim a shot through the jagged mesh that had swallowed up both girls.

Walls locked into place, interconnecting with one another to form a perfect ring of steel. From the top of each plate, wires burst into life, criss-crossing over a thousand times until a similarly tight-knit meshed roof was completed, sealing the lid of the cage. Ryuko was back to smiles, running a finger along the mesh.

"So, as you might have guessed, this cage is built from Life Fibers. It won't unravel until one of us is dead, or close enough. I had it built to survive Nui and I, whenever she comes to visit next. Oh, F.Y.I, she's coming to visit. A family reunion just wasn't going to be complete without all three of us, don't you think?"

Satsuki didn't so much as blink at the revelation, still readied for combat. Ryuko clicked her tongue, teeth grinding.

"Say. Something. Anything!"

Satsuki rose from her stance, but her sword-hand remained steady.

"Ryuko… I'm sorry. And if you will let me, I would like to talk to you. About everything."

The world stopped. Ryuko froze in place, jaw slack and eyes quivering. Junketsu's scarf glared Satsuki down, orange eyes hoping to burn a hole through her. The collective stadium held its breath, unsure and fearful of the tight, disbelieving expression on their queen's face. Three more Two-Star students lost their uniforms before they realised that they had more immediate problems to contend with.

Ryuko's jaw worked emptily, but after a long, long time, her voice came back, cracking at the edges.

"I… you want… to talk? You want to talk?"

Laughter bubbled up from within, escaping in small, manic bursts.

"You come, into my academy, defy my power, dispose of my men, destroy my council, brutalise my girlfriend and you want to talk?"

The laughter came thicker now, each string of madcap cackles seeming to weigh upon her shoulders as they slipped out.

"Hang on, hang on, let's turn the beat back a bit. After everything you've done, against me, against mother, against REVOCS, after running away, after your fucking betrayal, after announcing to the world just how much you want all of us dead, how much you want me dead, and you want to talk?"

The words hung heavy the air, weighted like a guillotine blade. Satsuki simply nodded, as though it was not her head placed in the stockade.

"I do. I do not know what Ragyo has been telling you, but- "

"The truth Satsuki. All she's ever taught me was the truth. And don't call her that, it's creepy."

The bastard sword came up, red light rolling across the surface in tumultuous waves.

**HEARTBREAK BLADE – SORORITY**

"You remember this sword?"

"I do. Your twelfth birthday present, shortly after I had Bakuzan forged. When mother refused to give me an advance on my allowance, I went and worked the factory floor at headquarters for a month to make up the difference I owed to the blacksmith. It almost didn't arrive on time due to a delay in the funds getting to me."

"Let me guess, that's her fault somehow?"

"Perhaps, but not one so egregious that I would seek vengeance over it. Certainly not compared to her other crimes."

"There are no other crimes. Just a list of bullshit you made up because you couldn't stand not being the favourite."

"Being the favoured child of Ragyo Kiryuin is not a fate I would wish upon anyone. It is a fate I hoped to spare you from."

"Stop calling her that!"

Sorority was pointed flat at her, Ryuko's breathing heavy and ragged. Satsuki dropped into stance once more.

"Here's what's going to happen. I'm going to drag you back home, and I don't care what condition you're in when you get there. No more running away Satsuki. Just you, me and this cage. If you're lucky, maybe I'll have finished you off by the time Nui gets here."

"Then by all means. Make the first move."

Teeth bared, Ryuko crossed the space between them in a single bound; black and white blades sparking against each other as Satsuki met her in turn.

* * *

The door slammed shut behind him, mechanical and digital locks resetting themselves as he entered into the hall of uniforms. The red air seemed particularly thick with loose strands today, and he was glad for the rebreather he'd snatched up in-between his encounters with the mob Ryuko had sent after him. A relatively clever plan, by her standards. Punish him for his failures, keep him from reaching his destination and assuage the crowd's wrath simultaneously. A not terribly awful plan with one fatal flaw: with the bulk of her rage focused on the returning Satsuki, Ryuko had yet to revoke his access privileges as a council member. Privileges that the mob did not have, and the doors of the Sewing Club Laboratories were built to withstand any force short of Ryuko herself. Perhaps a uniformed Uzu could have broken in, but that was a test for another day.

Diving into the Goku Uniform archive, he located the Three-Star uniforms. Blade, Empress, Platinum, Probe, Scourge, Spymaster, Tailor's. Just his luck that the one he needed sat at the back of the queue. Punching in a request for a replacement, he stood and waited while the great racks overhead whirred and clunked to meet his demand, drumming his fingers against the dashboard with man's shared vainglorious hope that physically interacting with a machine would make it run better. The Sewing Club would still be in data processing right now, that is, if they hadn't downed tools and gone to watch the grand finals. But in the event that they hadn't, he wanted to be in and out as soon as he could. Less witnesses, less potential victims if Ryuko completely lost her mind and went tearing through their ranks to punish his sins.

Just as the system had filtered his uniform out from the pack, the sound of pressurised seals opening up and metal locks shifting demanded his attention. The list of possibilities was short. Uzu, Mako, Maiko, Shiro and Ryuko. Out of that list, he could trust but one of them to hold their tongues and let him carry on. He liked to think his fellow Elites wouldn't throw him under the bus for brownie points, but Mako was still carrying on with her 'make Ryuko's heart grow three sizes' plan, Maiko was a rotten, power hungry snake of a woman who'd do anything to stay on top, and Uzu was so battle-blinded by Ryuko's power that some days it felt that he'd forgotten what exactly they were fighting for.

Taking all that into account, he took the most sensible option, and threw himself into the crawl space beneath Shiro's desk, contorting himself into the shadows as best he could. Years of sitting at a computer desk made this slightly more difficult than it should have been for a young man his age. But aching muscles would have to pipe down as he held his breath and waited to see who had come through the door.

The footsteps were heavy, with a slight swishing following in their wake as the door closed itself once more. Thick soles and a lab coat. Shiro.

He extracted himself from the desk right before his good friend reached his chair, watching with wry amusement as a little thrill ran through the blonde in surprise. His usual frown was back in place momentarily.

"Houka. I see you've given your pursuers the slip."

"For now. And while I could avoid those idiots all day, it'll be a damn slight easier once I'm invisible."

"I see. A return to the Probe Regalia then?"

"Not exactly. I'm going to need firepower as well."

"By all means, suit up."

They switched places, Shiro going to his desk and opening up old windows while Houka exchanged the tracksuit for proper attire. With a couple of clicks, repeated blasts filled the once-calm laboratory, a projection on the wall showing Satsuki and Ryuko's duel. The pair were moving so fast that the high-speed cameras had been wheeled out for the sake of the audience, the fight playing out in slow motion with the current events in the bottom-left corner of the screen, a couple seconds ahead.

They were matching each other step for step and blow for blow, never once landing a hit with anything but clashing blades. Shockwaves of furious power rocked the cage with each crash of metal on metal, the walls shaking so violently that even the Life Fiber construct seemed like it might collapse under the weight of the brawl. Anyone with less than Two-Stars upon their chests were evacuating the stadium in panicked exodus, lest they be sent flying by the aftermath of each attack. In the stands, Ira's battle against the remaining Two-Stars had been dramatically aided by the war of sisterly conflict. His armour was battered, his firearm long since depleted and his helmet absent from duty, a wide cut along his forehead gushing blood down his features. But still he raged, striking down anyone who came at him, his bulk allowing him to weather the storm and keep fighting even when his opponents were losing their balance under the weight of shockwaves. Shiro steepled his fingers, breathed out heavily.

"I am very glad I used the intermission to go to the bathroom."

"How is she doing?"

"Evenly matching Ryuko so far. But Junketsu isn't activated, and knowing Ryuko, she's not letting him feed her any power whatsoever. Not yet."

"So in order to match Satsuki's strongest efforts, she's giving herself a handicap. Fantastic."

"I do not believe Satsuki is utilising the full force of her might either. She seems a little too controlled right now, like she's testing herself against Ryuko."

"For God's sake, this is no time to compare! Kill her quickly and be done with it!"

"Trust in her Houka. This is only the first act, and she had to go through the strongest members of the council just to get to here. She might simply be pacing herself for the long game."

Houka bit down on a particularly long fingernail, tearing it away as Ryuko broke open Satsuki's guard. As the elder sister leapt away from the follow-up attack, he was mercifully given a problem he could control, as the door to the laboratory hissed open once again. He strode up to meet the newcomer, standing by with folded arms as Maiko Ogure squeezed in through the first gap she could muster, tumbling through the bulkhead and immediately throwing her weight against the other side to close it up as fast as she could. The airlock protested such rapid movements, but sucked up tight once more, the girl collapsing in exhaustion at the foot of steel.

"Ogure."

"Inumuta! Oh, and Iori's here too. And… it seems that great minds think alike."

She gave him one of those full-body stares, the kind she often employed when she thought he wasn't looking. Thankfully, her lust only seemed to reach skin-deep, and she made her own way to the central console, locating a copy of her own uniform and summoning it to the room.

"So, unfortunate news, our heads are on the chopping block. Ryuko's taking the opportunity to shuffle us out of the council. Her mistress and her side piece get to keep their jobs, because of course they do, the brainless twits. Honestly, the nepotism that runs this joint. But there's…"

"A small army looking to tear us apart. I am aware."

"And as such, you've come here to arm yourself and hole up. Whichever sister is left standing, we'll pick off the survivor, rid this academy of Kiryuin influence and take our rightfully earned position. It's a less… thoughtful plan than I would have liked, but I wasn't exactly expecting to get wiped out by a brute in plate armour."

"Yes, I seem to remember telling you not to do that meteor summoning trick. Something about extreme overheating and certain life endangerment?"

"Oh, hush up Iori. It worked, didn't it? Right up until he caught it at least, but how was I meant to account for that?"

"Given your frenzied screaming at the time, I doubt the calculations were at the forefront of your battle tactics."

Maiko huffed, and made her way over to the racking, retrieving her uniform. The two boys turned their full attentions to the ongoing battle as she changed. No change in the balance of power, but both of the combatants were becoming rather more careful with their attacks, the rupturing shockwaves few and far between as they nipped about, focusing entirely on trying to out-manoeuvre the other and slip attacks through on predicted movements and overextensions. Shiro couldn't help the gasp that caught his throat as Ryuko threw herself forward, allowing Satsuki a blow to the arm but trading her a collision of foreheads in the process. Being slammed with a Life Fiber skull must have hurt like nothing else, but Satsuki stood her ground, catching Ryuko on the other arm as she disengaged. The left side of her face was still raw and puffy from the previous round with Mako, yet she still managed to hold herself with surprising dignity as they returned to the game of cat and mouse.

"Ouch. Gotta give her credit though. That would have stopped anyone short of our resident sword monkey, and even his few brain cells would be rattling the bars of the proverbial cage afterwards."

Maiko's uniform was missing her beloved cape, but everything else seemed to be in order as she pulled up a chair alongside them.

"So, did you boys bring refreshments, or are we going to be sitting on our hands for the rest of the bout? Although, now that my strepower has returned, I suppose I could go do a shopping run while we wait. Teach those goons roaming the halls who their better is while I'm at it."

"Ogure, based on what you've seen thus far, who would you pick as the eventual winner of this conflict?"

She bristled a little at the shutdown, but lent forward and continued to watch for a few moments nonetheless, wincing as Satsuki was nailed with a body blow. The follow-up attack was deflected without much trouble, but the retreat was not so smooth this time.

"As much as I hate to say it, our dear queen is likely to come out on top. She's taken far less damage and she's starting to land more hits. Even if she didn't have that ungodly endurance, Satsuki's gone through two battles just to get here, and the retards gave her quite the pummelling. Unless there's a serious trick hidden up those long sleeves, Ryuko's going to outlast her."

"Thank you, Ogure. I needed someone to back up my confirmation bias. Which brings us to the next question: how do we capitalise on Ryuko's success and overthrow her?"

"Satsuki hasn't lost yet."

"Yet is the operative word Iori. If you want to place your hopes in a saviour, then put your hands together and keep watching quietly, and let those of us who create their own miracles get to work."

She spun her chair around to face him, folding one leg over the other.

"Talk to me Inumuta. You wouldn't be throwing this out here unless you had a plan."

He spared Shiro a quick look, the other boy still transfixed on the screen, watching as the girls he'd grown up alongside tore each other to pieces. Satsuki had caught Ryuko with a feinted slash, taking the opportunity and slicing a bloody scar down Junketsu from shoulder to hip. Ryuko was on the defensive, but the limiters were coming off. Judging by the snarl on her face and the glow of Junketsu's scarf, they were starting to feed into one another. If Satsuki couldn't claim a victory now, then the blows she'd fought so hard to stick up to now were going to start healing over.

He clutched at Shiro's shoulder for a brief moment before returning his attentions to business.

"I have… some associates."

* * *

_"Junketsu, status report!"_

_"It looks, and feels, worse than the sum total of the damage. No Banshi have been severed, and reparations are already underway. If you can prevent her from landing any further blows, we will be able to synchronise in little under a minute."_

_"You've got it."_

She skipped away from Satsuki, leaving the arena sopping with a fresh trail of blood as she backpedalled, the cage battered with shockwave after shockwave as Satsuki chased her down. No clever footwork now, just the rush to put more damage through before Ryuko's constitution rendered her efforts meaningless. But for poor old Satsuki, that meant she had to press the advantage, and it was far easier for Ryuko to follow the arc of her sword and intercept it than it was to dance about fishing for stray hits. The blades came together once more, sending the arena ringing with another glorious clash of… now that she thought about it, she never did ask what the swords were made of. A material hard and sharp enough to cut Life Fibers, whatever it was. How'd a thirteen-year-old girl manage to pull that one out of her hat not once, but three times?

Whatever. Just another secret hidden away from her. Another tool to be used against her.

_"There will soon be no place for her to hide her secrets from you Ryuko, we promise you of that. Retribution is almost ready."_

_"Attaboy Jun."_

Truth be told, she was almost disappointed to pull the trigger and bring this to a close so soon. It had been a long, long time since she had felt so challenged on the field of battle, even if she was only fighting with her base connection to Junketsu. But a base connection to Junketsu still made her the second or third strongest person on the planet, and she and Nui had never found enough hours in the day to truly settle which one of them sat directly under mother on the totem of power.

Satsuki was everything wrong with the race of livestock known as humanity. She lied, she swindled, she conspired against those she should hold closest to her breast. Nothing less and nothing more than human, and yet, she was fighting like a woman twice her divinity, forcing Ryuko to give her all with every swing, feint, footstep and counter that was traded between them. It was the kind of fight Uzu gave her once in a blue moon. But those always ended too soon, the void between them still too vast even after all their brawls.

She was sweating, hair sticking to the back of her neck and plastered to her forehead. Her breath was running ragged and the battle marched to the rapid-fire pump of blood surging through her skull. Whisper it, but there might have even been a hint of exhaustion in her sword arm from having to deflect so many attacks. And it felt glorious.

_"Are you quite done idolising the enemy?"_

Junketsu's raspy, machinal voice bulldozed into her train of thought, metaphorical passengers thrown to their deaths.

_"Cut me some slack, I never got to fight her. Oh sure, we sparred a couple times back when I was learning, but nothing like this! I never got to see her go full out!"_

_"You should have killed her on the training field. It would have spared us all a lot of headaches and heartbreaks."_

_"Yeah, I really should have… why didn't I? She's always been conspiring against us. It's not like she could have done anything to stop me back then."_

_"Your mercy was misplaced. Do not dwell on it."_

Satsuki came at her, but when the slash came crashing down, it was a much younger Satsuki she saw, a much lighter swing. It was not so light as it slipped past her guard and carried on through her body, a parallel slice to the one that had previously marred Junketsu, but far deeper in payment for her mistake. She bit down on her tongue, pushed through the pain.

_"We just instructed you not to dwell on the past!"_

_"Fuck, I know, I know! It was an accident! I get sentimental, you know that! How can I not?"_

_"The feeling is not mutual on her part. Let the past die, smother it in its crib!"_

That setback pushed the finale back another two minutes, Junketsu straining and contracting as he worked through the loss of a Banshi. And all the while Satsuki kept coming, that flickering, floating memory working in tandem with her assault. A younger Satsuki. Larger swords. An empty hall for just the two of them. Silly jokes and sweat upon her brow. The peaceful scenes kept clashing with the Satsuki at her throat, ever pushing, ever pressuring, opening up smaller cuts on her hands, demands to drop the sword. She was being pushed harder than any opponent had the right to test her, so why couldn't she stop smiling?

Oh, that was right. It was a time before Honnouji. Before she'd seen the light. Her sister had always been such a good liar. And she'd almost fallen for the same tricks again.

_"Are you back with us?"_

_"Yeah. I am. Sorry about that Jun."_

_"It matters not. We borrowed some of your fibers to make up the difference. Consider the matter settled, and let us be as one!"_

_"Yeah. Let's do it."_

She threw her weight into a wide swing, Satsuki bringing Bakuzan-Prime between them and still sent grinding back, concrete spraying under her geta. Winded and reeling, she was in no condition to prevent the inevitable.

She flicked those three little straps into place, and they unravelled and were resewn back together. From the outside, their glorious synchronisation took less than a second to complete. Within their world made for two, they felt every breath-taking knitting of Life Fibers and flesh, bounded together in true union for what seemed like an eternity. But just as her head lolled back in satisfied purring, the bless of combination was shattered by a jagged voice tearing through their bond.

_"She's coming at us! Ryuko, dodge!"_

Ripping off the wave of sheer joy before it had time to settle under the skin, she threw herself to the side, coming out of her transformation in a commando roll. She surged to her feet, ecstasy flushed out and replaced with bitter reality. But as she rose, she nearly lost her balance, stumbling to a knee once more.

Something was wrong. Something was missing. And she could feel the blood draining from her face as the unbearable lightness of her right shoulder became paramount, reported back to her a second later in a wave of utter agony as Junketsu's pain fed into her. She clutched at the side of her face as that stiletto-knife of pain pressed into the hollows of her skull and lodged there. Twin voices howled out, but only one of them was played back to the whole of Honnouji as Ryuko recoiled, crumpled up on herself.

"MY EYE!"

* * *

Down in the Sewing Club Laboratory, the echo of the scream hit them long before the footage caught up to the injury. Maiko's jaw nearly came away from her face.

"Holy shit. She can be hurt."

* * *

Those six little words echoed throughout Honnouji, the populous lost in stunned reverence as Ryuko Kiryuin, the tyrant of Honnouji, the REVOCS scion, the high queen of hell and wielder of many other titles both official and unofficial staggered back, the right spire of Junketsu cleaved clean from her shoulder and reduced to red dust on the wind. A flat stump sticking out next to her head was all that remained. On the other side, the left spire's eye was bugging out, manic pulsing matching its master's hellish screech.

_"We're hurt! We're hurt, we're hurt, we're hurt!"_

_"I know we're fucking hurt, quit reminding me!"_

She pulled her hand away just in time to catch Satsuki doubling down, aiming to take out Junketsu's other eye. The twin blades were out now, Ryuko fighting through the pain to keep them off of her. Junketsu's continuous yelping was doing nothing for her concentration. Now, for the first time in her entire life, she was properly on the defensive, fighting to knock back every little hit and slice lest she lose another valuable part of herself. Her right eye swam with tears, itching furiously from the synaptic feedback. Time to assess the situation, turn the fight back around.

How novel. She almost felt like an underdog.

_"Jun, those fibers are flat gone, aren't they?"_

_"Severed! We don't know what she's done, but we can't feel their ends! We cannot regenerate them!"_

_"How long do we have before we break down?"_

_"A matter of minutes! We're enhancing our connection just to stay combined. We think we have about ten or so minutes before extreme overheating occurs and we're forced to separate!"_

Already gouts of steam were hissing out from between the gaps in their armour, the cloven stump pulsing a deep, painful orange that pushed heat into her face. She predicted the emergence of the next one and angled her body so that the burning cloud prevented Satsuki from coming in, giving them room to breathe.

_"Right, so what changed? She was using Bakuzan for the whole fight, but now she's working these short blades. Why?"_

She took a risk, quickly apologising to Junketsu as she performed a subpar guard, allowing one of the blades to rake down her thigh but knocking the other one back. Putting space between them again, she continued the steam defence. But Satsuki was getting bolder now, pushing through the clouds as they were cooling and maintaining her offensive.

_"Jun, status report on that last injury."_

_"It was a deep wound, but knitting together nicely!"_

_"So the fibers are reconnecting, yes?"_

_"Yes!"_

_"I've figured it out. She cut you from both sides. One blade on its own can hurt our fibers, but not kill them completely. But if she sliced us from both sides…"_

_"Destroying the regeneration before it had a chance to begin! Oh Ryuko, you are brilliant!"_

_"So what we need to do…"_

_"Is rob her of one of those blades!"_

_"I've got another reckless plan. Sorry about this buddy, but we're taking another one for the team."_

_"We follow your lead as always. Eight minutes remaining, just so you're aware."_

She threw out another blast of steam but this time went rolling through, scorching vapour cascading off her body as she chased Satsuki down. Satsuki went to strike, but as the blades came across, Ryuko's empty hands came up. Sorority had been abandoned in the steam, Satsuki's surprise registering at the last second as Ryuko impaled her hands with each blade. Satsuki acknowledged the plan, trying to slip them free but stopped as Ryuko squeezed down, trapping the swords within her grip. Satsuki might have been the strongest human she knew, but at the end of the day, she was only human. And a human in cotton had as much chance of overpowering her as an ant attempting to trip up a human. No matter how she tried to dislodged the twin swords, the motions only served to jostle the blades a sliver, blood spurting out from the wounds and dotting along Junketsu. Punches to the face and stomach were equally ineffective, Ryuko grinning through each one.

"Oh Satsuki, Satsuki, Satsuki. Have you really forgotten the gulf that lies between us? You played a pretty slick trick there, I'll admit. But it's over. You can't hurt us anymore."

Satsuki clicked her tongue, leaping back to the other side of the arena. Steam rolled away as Ryuko strode on through, casually pulling the short swords out of her hands with wet sucking sounds. Arming herself properly, she just kept on smiling.

"You know, these are pretty well balanced. You must have really worked hard on them. Practised with them every day, all for this moment. And you couldn't even get the job done right. But hey, that's just your limitation. Junketsu might be wounded, but even half of us is more than anything humanity can… what are you doing?"

Satsuki bit down on the heel of her hand, a bloody ring about her mouth as she pulled it away. Fresh blood trailing down her fingers, she slipped her hand under her robes, fixing Ryuko with a steely glare.

"Ryuko, I'm… so sorry."

"No…"

"Life Fiber Override!"

Purple light shimmered and swam under Satsuki's robes, and the air was filled with a sickly sensation as a mass of pale orange slumped up and engulfed her, dull teeth poking through. As the transformation ended, the kimono had been blasted into shreds, Satsuki standing before her wearing… something.

_"What the fuck?"_

_"Great Mother above, we're going to be sick."_

The thing was clearly supposed to be a Kamui. It bore the trademarks of the holy outfits. Armoured plates with the suppleness of cloth, a jet-thruster between the shoulder blades. But Ryuko would have no more worn such a monstrosity as she would garb herself in rotten meat and broken eggs.

It took the form of a standard school swimsuit – a royal blue one-piece that covered the torso, thick straps over the shoulders with arms and legs left bare. But the stitching was open and bleeding to the world, and there, running from the underside of Satsuki's breasts to the tip of her groin, a single rheumy eye, cloudy white and sightless. It wept endlessly, pearly tears dripping between Satsuki's legs as she began walking towards them, Bakuzan-Prime drawn for battle.

**KAMUI FUKUSEI**

_"What is that thing?"_

_"We… she's… It's disconnected. We cannot feel its thoughts. She has robbed it from the grace of the hive mind, torn it away from Mother's warmth. That… that is not life. That is sickness. If it does not beg for death, it is only because it has not the words to make such a wish."_

"What the fuck, Satsuki?"

"Needs must when demons drive. You are correct Ryuko, I could not stand on your level. And as you do not wish to speak with me, then I shall engage with you in the only method you seem to recognise. I will free you from the tyranny of clothing, even if I must be devoured in the process."

"No, no. I don't think you understand. What you've done here, what you've made. That's like… if I made a dress out of stillborns and stem cells, slathered them all over my body. That… that is…"

She lost her nerve, pitching over sideways and letting loose the contents of her stomach. She realised too late that she'd dropped one of the short swords, Satsuki standing there attempting to weigh it against Bakuzan-Prime. She did a good job of looking concerned.

"Don't you… don't you pretend you care. Don't you pretend that you give the slightest hint of a fuck about me!"

"If I had only come here seeking your head, do you not think I would be taking advantage of your weakness at this moment?"

She had the audacity to come closer, to crouch down and extend a hand.

"Ryuko, please. I can explain myself. I can explain everything. I will not ask your forgiveness. I only ask to be understood."

She kicked the hand away, spun backwards and flipped off her hands, falling back to Sorority. She snatched it up in both hands, acidic spittle dripping from her lips.

"What do you want me to understand Satsuki? You want to bring an end to the Life Fibers. My people! My family! My very body and soul! And you think you can poison me against everything I am with sweet words, convince me to step aside as you commit fucking genocide?"

She shook her head, wiped her mouth clean.

"No. Not now. Not ever. Not while I draw breath."

_"Six minutes Ryuko. Put that abomination down."_

"I will kill you here and now, Satsuki Kiryuin!"

Satsuki closed her eyes. Drew in a long breath.

"I see. Then I shall bury the sister that is lost to me. Prepare yourself, Ryuko Kiryuin!"

They kicked off from the arena surface, colliding in mid-air with a tremendous roar. They fell away, and came crashing in once more. Energy rippled through the air, thick and heavy with power. Every blow deflected and cast aside sent tremors dancing through the artificial earth, geysers of scorching red and blue erupting from the cracks. The Life Fiber cage looked as though it might come apart completely, a thousand shockwaves cutting the air apart a hundred times over, the metal clattering and rattling as every inch was battered by the storm raging within. The battle was lost in a haze of coloured backlash, but neither one retreated an inch.

This was novel. This was new. This was completely insane. She was actually being matched on every level. Satsuki was only using Bakuzan-Prime, but every slice of energy that slipped through each clash of blades was biting into them as deeply as the twin swords had. She'd actually been holding something back, and now every time they traded Ryuko would be hit by a dozen phantom strikes even if she blocked the main attack. Bloody scars opened up and sealed themselves in waves, a thousand paper cuts across her skin.

_"Should we use a transformation? It might throw her off-guard."_

_"Not while you're damaged. We're running low on synchronisation time as it is without adding unneeded stress. Just stay the course, and focus on our healing. I've got a plan."_

_"As you wish."_

Satsuki came at her, a whirlwind of steel, spinning, kicking and slashing in such tight succession that finding a gap in her defences simply wasn't happening. Ryuko kept up her guard, and waited. The moment would come. Satsuki was working against her, no more stabs or steep strikes that might catch in the skin, but the moment would come.

They clashed, a burst of sparkling light that rippled down and immediately came rushing back up at them, red and blue twisting together in sheer hot energy and spraying all over the cage. It forced them to either side. Ryuko went right, not finding Satsuki there. Perfect. Turning on her heel, she leapt back, and brought Sorority down with both hands. Satsuki emerged just in time to be caught in the attack.

Sorority hit the arena floor, and a tide of crimson erupted in a shotgun-blast of energy, slamming into Satsuki's chest and throwing her clean from her feet. She corrected in mid-air, converting into a backflip, but Ryuko had chased her down before she could land. Satsuki let loose one of those azure blades, only for it to go sailing past, scoring only a few hairs as Ryuko went cleanly horizontal in mid-air, nailing both heels into Satsuki's gut in a perfect dropkick. There was no correcting that one, Satsuki sent full-force into the side of the cage with a satisfying crush. Bones or buckled metal, she cared not which. Her sister was already pulling herself free, but Ryuko had got her one good hit in, and now it was as good as done.

The simple fact of the matter was, she and Junketsu had been together since her fourth birthday. In some form or another, they had been connected for the majority of her life. Satsuki had dragged a half-cobbled shroud of false life to hide her sins, and she was paying the price for such blasphemy. Steam and blood leaked from every poorly-sewn stitch, the single eye growing sick with bloodshot veins, its eternal tears wept thicker and faster. Satsuki had claimed that she stood on their level, but it was taking every ounce of her strength not to be consumed there and then. But still she stood, Bakuzan-Prime at her hip, ready for one last futile attack.

_"One minute!"_

_"It's over."_

She ran in, ready to impress the truth upon Satsuki as well.

_"Wait, Ryuko! She's doing something!"_

Something was the sun, reflected just so off the flat of the blade. Reflex screwed her eyes up tight against her will, and she felt the deep bite of steel into her throat and out the other side.

_"Fuck!"_

Satsuki was moving through, and as Ryuko reached up to grab the thread and pull her head back down Bakuzan-Prime was carving a series of painful strikes across her body. Her vision was floating towards the cage roof but the sting of bones being exposed to the open air was all the information she needed. Her Life Fibers were desperately trying to heal every part of her at once. But they had never been put under such pressure, and despite the lack of double-sided slices, her system was simply overtaxed.

_"Junketsu! Focus on my legs and right arm! Everything else can go!"_

She snatched the connecting cord, and whipped her head straight down, finding a hard kernel of pleasure to keep her moving through the pain. Satsuki's face, broken with shock.

_"That's right bitch. Look upon your evolutionary superior."_

_"Twenty seconds!"_

Satsuki went for her sword, summoning the strength for a follow-up. Too little too late. Ryuko's loose head met her nose with a sickening crunch, the world spinning as she recoiled from the blow, her severed neck coming back together in a neat landing. Head back in place, she cast her damaged arm back and whipped it out, sending it spiralling forward with Life Fibers glistening in the wake of tearing skin. The closed fist caught Satsuki dead centre, breaking her sister against the cage wall once again. She staggered, and as their synchronisation separated, Ryuko came screaming through the cloud of steam, landing a viscous right punch to match the left she'd just dealt. She felt Satsuki's jaw give way, and followed it up with another right. Her left arm slammed back into position just in time for another left, a medley of fists bouncing Satsuki off the cage wall again and again to the beat of Ryuko's hoarse cries.

"Bitch, bitch, bitch, bitch, bitch!"

She tore a strip down the false Kamui, freed it from its suffering. Grabbing Satsuki by the throat, she hurled her overhead, slamming her against the ground. Another long tear, and the pathetic threads that held the back of the Kamui were sundered as well, Life Fibers pouring off of her sister's body and flowing into hers, patching the wounds from the last attack. Junketsu's shoulder remained missing however, and Ryuko dealt revenge for that insult in spades. The next ten seconds of her life were some of the best she'd ever had, snatching Satsuki by the ankles and whipping her back and forth, concrete shattering every time the limp body came down, until finally it was cast away, the bloody, naked form of her sister coming to a still slump in the middle of the arena.

The cage was spraying some sort of anti-fire vapour. The freezing damp bothered her not, Junketsu's shared heat mixing nicely with the taste of comeuppance.

_"Are you okay sweetheart?"_

Half a scarf looked back up at her.

_"Other than the missing eye, we are fine. That said, we are not used to this lack of depth perception."_

_"Well, Nui's on her way. She'll fix you up in no time."_

_"We would curse her need to be fashionably late, but we admit, you are quite radiant right now."_

_"Feels good to settle things, you know? Putting that poor thing down was icing on the cake."_

_"Can we not talk about it? We're still not quite over the nausea."_

_"Of course. Right, let's get around to the closing ceremony, and put all this behind us."_

_"We would like that very much."_

She made her way to the side facing the tower, called out for support from the boys over in arena controls. No response came. The world was strangely quiet, and with so much steam and sparkling energy still hanging in the air, she didn't even know who her next Disciplinary Chair was.

_"We recall hearing some screams during the conflict."_

_"Yeah, that was you whining about your eye."_

_"Other than this one. Human screams. I believe the battle was too intense for the lesser species, and the audience has fled."_

_"Shit. Might just be us then, and I really don't want to crack open the cage. Knew I should have put controls on the inside as well."_

_"It has held up remarkably well."_

_"Fuck it, let's take a break. I can't remember the last time I fought that hard anyway."_

She padded over to where Satsuki lay. Her sister's body was red and raw where the Kamui had been worn, frayed muscles poking through in places. Her ponytail had burst open, a shroud of hair protecting her modesty. Loose, like when they'd been children. She'd always envied how well her sisters wore their hair long. The red slash of her divinity never looked good with anything longer than neck-length. Ryuko took a seat beside her, taking long, deep breaths as the steam faded out.

"Why'd ya have to do it Satsuki?"

_"Ryuko, there is no point in questioning the morals of treachery. It is done now."_

_"I know, but just… why?"_

The memories came unbidden, refusing to leave no matter how hard she bit down on her tongue. A thousand stupid, meaningless memories of three girls, and the simple bond of sisterhood. Satsuki's nagging but well-meaning warnings, the strange phenomena that surrounded Nui and endless hijinks, games and plans for the future.

"Why didn't you say anything?"

Her body rocked with an ugly hiccup. She was glad that the stadium was empty – if the steam cleared before this weakness did, she'd never live it down.

"What did I do wrong?"

Another hiccup. Her eyes were watering again, the pain worse than losing a thousand shoulders.

"Why didn't you take me with you?"

Non-existent gods help her, she was actually crying for the traitor. She had to get it together. Kiryuins didn't cry.

"Why wasn't I ever good enough for you?"

* * *

_"See, isn't this much nicer than spending the evening at school?"_

_They lay nose-to-nose in the double bed, close enough that Ryuko could count each ring under her sister's eyes. The lights had long been turned out, but they were separating tomorrow, and for quite a long while. Probably the longest they'd ever been apart from one another, and so she was making the most of the evening while they were still awake. Satsuki breathed out, a soft smile cresting her face._

_"I suppose. You should try to make your quarters there when you can. There's going to be… a lot of work to do. Not just club related materials, but all sorts of paperwork at every level of management. You may find yourself doing a lot of all-nighters, and it'll be good to rest your head somewhere close to your office."_

_Satsuki was drifting on the precipice of sleep. In classic younger sister fashion, Ryuko still had energy to spare, and wanted none of it wasted dwelling on academy matters. Gently, she reached out, her hand slipping into Satsuki's nightgown and tracing the swell of her breast._

_"Ryuko, no. You know I don't like that."_

_She retreated, that sweet warmth in the palm of her hand, urging her to ignore Satsuki's hang-ups and show her what she was missing out on. Instead, she clenched her fist, drew it to her own chest._

_"I just don't get it. Connecting feels good, so why…"_

_"Ryuko, you know I love you, right?"_

_Satsuki eye fluttered open, fixing her with a hazy sort of look._

_"Yeah, but- "_

_"Then can it not simply be left at that? We know we love each other, even without touching. Why try to force the issue?"_

_Because that's how we've always done it. The phrase came to mind, but it would ring hollow. Satsuki had never looked pleased when it came time to join together. Even when Ryuko had asked mother and Nui to step aside and attempted to convince Satsuki alone, she had been so… frigid. Taut to the touch and awkward. Mother claimed her lack of Life Fibers prevented her from engaging with them on such a level, but Ryuko would not leave Satsuki out in the cold if she could help it. What was life without those connections, if not bitingly cold?_

_The covers shifted, Satsuki shuffling a smidge closer. Their legs knocked about, coming to a rest in a comfortable tangle as their chests pressed together. Satsuki threw an arm over Ryuko, receiving one in kind._

_"Is this not close enough? Do I still feel cold?"_

_"Cheater. You're reading my mind again."_

_"Hmm." She hummed in that cryptic way. "The power of the older sister."_

_"You say that, but I never know what's going on in Nui's head."_

_"That may be for the best. We'll go mad otherwise."_

_A couple of giggles. Satsuki was passing out, but Ryuko had one more thing to push through._

_"Satsuki?"_

_"Hmm?"_

_"I am going to be okay? Running the academy, I mean."_

_"Of course you are. Don't let Inumuta let you think otherwise."_

_"It's not about that jackass. It's just… you had to set up all the contracting work, and planned out the city, and did all of the smart stuff, and I…"_

_"Came up with an ingenious method to motivate the student body into following the planned system, oversaw all the actual construction work, built half the One-Star apartments single-handedly, came up with a list of potential clubs that doubled the ones I had Iori plan for, and so much more. There was no crime in needing assistance with logistics. Honnouji is your kingdom, and you have assembled it magnificently."_

_Satsuki's eyes found hers, swimming with sleep but no less focused for that._

_"No matter whoever throws petty insults at your feet, know that I am so proud of you and everything you have accomplished. Hold that to your chest and rise above it Ryuko, and you will forever be a queen."_

* * *

Ryuko jerked upwards, stiffness in her neck from sitting for so long.

"What the fuck?"

 _"What was that?"_ Junketsu added, but his voice was tinny and far away, lost behind her own thoughts on the matter.

"What the fuck? Where did that come from? All those 'I love yous' and… she said she was proud? She's never said she was proud of me! She never… not once, in all these years, so what the fuck was up with that?"

She snarled at Satsuki's unmoving body.

"Where was all that when we were growing up? Instead of all the nagging, and complaining, and telling me how to live my life and how to act! Actually, fuck that. That was the last day we were ever together, and you told me all that, and then went swanning off, looking for a method to kill me! What the fuck is wrong with you?"

"If one seeks answers, one does not usually request them of the unconscious. You get very little in return for your soul-searching."

The steam began to clear, and she went after that smug tone. There, standing at the peak of Honnouji, dressed in his Three-Star uniform, was Houka Inumuta. Ryuko rose up, the fight still weighing heavily in her limbs. Her injuries had patched over, but the mere act of walking was like trying to trudge through treacle.

"Inumuta. I see you slipped the hounds. And got your uniform back. Naughty boy. I seem to remember kicking you off the council."

"Well, as I wasn't around for that proclamation, and as I dodged the gangs you sent after my head, I daresay I deserve to stay in the white and gold."

"Jackass. Fine, fine, you've mildly impressed me. Drop the cage and I'll let you back on to the council, no questions asked."

"I'm afraid that's not happening."

"And there it is. Let me guess. 'Oh, Ryuko's going to be all tuckered out after fighting Satsuki, so let's turn on her while she's weak'. Good luck dickhead. Even at my weakest, I'm still stronger than you."

"You think I don't know that? You think that ideal hasn't been engraved into the souls of everyone at this god-forsaken academy, running and fighting and dying at your whims? No Ryuko, there's no fight this time. Just your defeat."

"Okay, very cute. If you're not going to drop the cage, then I'll just crack it open. Any last words before I do the same to you?"

"By all means, be my guest."

Ryuko sneered, spat and went to move. Nothing happened. Her legs refused to obey her; her arms locked in place.

"What? Junketsu, what's happening?"

"Oh, I'm afraid there's no help coming from your Kamui this time."

"Bastard! What have you done?"

"Do I look like a manga villain Ryuko? Do you think that I'm going to explain the intricacies of this plan, and then be taken completely off-guard when you figure out how exactly to escape, screaming how it's all so impossible? No, I think not. Stand there and dwell upon your failures while you freeze to death."

He brought a hand to his collar.

"This is Hairless Dog. The dragon is contained, repeat, the dragon is- "

He stopped, coughed a bloody cough as the front of his uniform budged and split open, a rapier pushed all the way through.

"Well now, aren't you a buzzkill? Simply no fun at all. But that's computer kids for you, right? No taste for theatrics."

Houka dropped to his knees, his ribcage made a resting place for the thin, floral sword.

"Be a dear and hold onto my cute little sword for me, would you? I haven't seen my sisters in forever, and I do so hate to mix business with pleasure."

Big pink shoes stepped up to the edge. A fluffy, well-kept Lolita dress swayed in the wind, big blonde pigtails following it. Big blue eyes shimmered with joy, as though a young man wasn't spluttering out chunks of lung behind her. Ryuko's face froze in a smile, knowing that everything was going to be okay.

**THE GRAND COUTURIER**

**THE HIGH ORDER TAILOR**

**AND**

**HONNOUJI STUDENT COUNCIL VICE PRESIDENT**

**NUI HARIME**


	14. Bad Reputation

Chapter 14: Bad Reputation

_Well-polished shoes made the long trip up the stairs of the ancestral Kiryuin family manor. Nui had insisted on having a room as close to the stars as possible, and while it was good that his young charge was taking an interest in astronomy instead of the hobbies her mother pushed upon her, the protest of his old bones with every step made him wish she'd found an interest that was a little more down to earth._

_It was a wish he made twice over as he knocked upon her door, finding a patch not covered in wet paint or glitter, both reapplied in different colours twice a week. She called him in, and he found her sat in the centre of the room, facing away from the entrance. Arts and crafts were the order of the day once again, a number of wooden dolls littering the thick pink plush of her carpets, each one accompanied by a glass jar. A few steps closer, and he managed to identify the contents. The jars were filled with differing colours, but every strand was unmistakably that of human hair._

_He waited for her to finish her work, watching with quiet distaste as the young mistress reached into the rightmost jar, carefully applying the hair to the doll, holding it up to the light and turning it this way and that, adjusting with scissors and a tiny comb until it came together in the unmistakable shape of a bowl cut, the bloody roots of her bounty gently washed out and an expression of dull subservience allowing the doll a borrowed face to go with its stolen hair._

_"Lady Nui, might I ask what it is that you're working on today?"_

_"Voodoo dolls. A bunch of stupid boys got Satsuki and Ryuko in trouble today, so I'm making them pay."_

_"I see."_

_How she was privy to this information was a complete mystery, since he'd only just gotten off the phone with the High-Handed Elementary School about her sister's brawl with their schoolmates. Something about a boy making fun of Satsuki's eyebrows and Ryuko wading in, fist-first as usual. But Nui had been confined to her room all day, busy with the latest batch of sewing work assigned to her by Lady Ragyo, and hadn't even emerged for lunch, asking him to leave it outside her door. Her home-schooling sat upon her desk, pulsing thickly red in the sunlight._

_"Well, I've been asked to collect them from school a bit earlier than usual. And seeing as they already gave those boys a fair share of lumps, I think what would really cheer them up would be seeing both of us in the car. What do you think?"_

_She perked up, looking at him for the first time that day._

_"I can go out in the car? I can go and see them early?"_

_She paused, looking over to the big pink desk and the knitting needles jammed into the wood, left there in frustrated angles._

_"I can't. Mama said I had to do my knitting before she comes home."_

_He knelt down, ignoring the way his knees creaked all the way to her line of sight. Leaning in conspiratorially, he whispered in theatre tones._

_"I shan't tell her you took a break if you don't."_

_A little thrill ran through her, and she bounded to her feet. Flitting and flipping like a paper doll caught in a breeze, she vanished into her wardrobe and came out a second later, dressed to the nines in a sailor uniform inspired outfit._

_"What are we waiting for? Come on Soroi, Satsuki and Ryuko need us!"_

_Grabbing his hand, she pulled him bodily from the room and rushed him down the stairs with the strength of a full-grown man, babbling all the way about all the ways she could improve her sister's moods. By the time they made it to the garage, she'd already convinced him into arranging a visit to an ice cream parlour and at least two toy stores._

_They agreed that she could have two scoops, so long as she threw out the voodoo dolls upon their return._

* * *

A weaker man would have lamented what became of that sweet little girl. A stronger man would have torn away from her mother's influence and run as far and fast as he could, with both of her sisters under his arms to boot. But Mitsuzo Soroi knew exactly the measure of his strength, and so went to do what he could.

Lady Mako was the most atrocious sleeper that he had ever seen. Each of her limbs found a different angle to jut out at, she drooled a waterfall down her pillow, and always found a way to expose her stomach to the world. If Ryuko had been lain beside her, limpets in every ocean would have been put to shame at the way the two suctioned together, refusing to break apart until dawn. Of his many regrets, that Mako did not have longer to pull Ryuko away from her mother's grasp was high upon his list. Deep in his heart, he would have put down good money that a sleeping Mako could overpower even the Kiryuin matriarch. But they were out of time, and so he brought her gently back into the mad world.

She awoke quickly but not fully, one eye drifting shut already, demanding a return to rest.

"Soroi? Did… did Ryuko win?"

He splashed cool water upon her face, scrubbing her about in circles with a towelette.

"Not exactly. She defeated Satsuki, but she's about to lose the war. Inumata has turned against Honnouji, and has brought Nudist Beach with him."

Her features stopped spinning, caught in place between both hands as her senses came back to her.

"Oh no! Ryuko hates being betrayed! It's like her least favourite thing!"

She fell out the bed in a mess of sheets, scrambling to her feet with a little assistance. A new Three-Star Uniform awaited her, although it took her a few attempts to get fully dressed in her panic.

"There is something else you should know. Lady Nui has just arrived."

She stopped dead still, the colour draining from her face.

"Oh. Oh no."

The only solace he could offer her was a sympathetic nod.

* * *

Nui leapt from the peak of her sister's power, dropping down onto the roof of the cage with a clack of heels on metal. Satsuki and Ryuko were still trapped within, one naked and unconscious, one stuck in place with joy spread across her face. The fine, freezing mist still hissed away, spraying out from little nubs along the roof, little cross-sections of Life Fiber mesh tricked into pumping out a substance that would slow the metabolism of any Life Fiber lifeform that was unfortunate enough to be stuck inside. She slipped her hand through the metal, cupping it under one of the nubs. Even for one as cold-blooded as her, the chill that ran up her arm as her fingers joined together was dreadfully biting. Pulling it free in a tear of bloody flesh, she stood up straight, massaging her palm until perfectly porcelain skin washed back over the exposed muscle.

"Well now, isn't this a fine pickle you've gotten yourself into? Such a delightfully chilly end to the war of sisterly conflict! What it's like to be awash head to toe in the stuff…"

She imagined the full-body freeze that Ryuko must have been enduring, shuddering on the spot.

"No matter, I'd go find the controls and get you out in a jiffy, dear sister. Let's see, I think they were over…"

She turned sharply to the side, letting a barrage of needles go flying past. Clapping her hands together, she kept on spinning, coming back around to the man stalking towards her.

"Ah, there's the hired help. Be a lamb and point me in the direction of the arena controls, would you? I'd ask Inumuta, but he's come down with a sudden case of death."

She cast her gaze left and right, watching black-clad figures rise from the arena stands.

"Typical. The watchdog's away for only a minute, and in sneak the riff-raff."

Fifty or so was their number, every man and woman dressed in nothing but black straps and military gear. Sewing Machineguns ready at their hips, Tailor's Daggers in the off-hand, and explosives strapped to their chests. Yet for all their armaments they did not move to attack, watching and waiting as their leader approached her, mohawk swaying in the wind.

"Speak up, you defiant bastards. Inform the Grand Couturier of who you are."

"We are the last hope of man! Clad in nothing but the flesh of man!" They called back to him, zealous voices bouncing from wall to wall of the emptied stadium.

"Well then, Naked Nudists, I ask you. What do you hold in your right hand?"

"Needles! Anathema to the life of the cloth!"

Guns locked and loaded, fresh reels of needles sliding into place and focused upon her.

"What do you hold in your left hand?"

"A knife! To sever the threads of fate!"

Blades flashed as they were brought to bear, fifty cuts prepared along dotted lines that only they could see. Tsumugu's own blade was drawn, a heavy machete that looked more suited to hacking apart rainforests than parting simple fabric.

"Then let us impress two pieces of information upon this monster in human skin. That her sisters are lost to her forever, and that we, the Naked Nudists, shall fight for humanity until even our bones are rendered nude!"

Feverous voices rose up in a howling war cry, Nudists throwing themselves from the stadium benches and dive-bombing towards Nui. She lowered her sun reflector and pushed her sunglasses down the bridge of her nose, watching as they fell towards her in slow motion.

"Gosh, is it finally over? I swear, humans and their tiresome little speeches."

She got up off the tanning bed, discarded the sunglasses and closed up the parasol, giving it a few swings to test the weight of it in her hand.

"Honestly, you'd think that with such short, pointless lives they'd spent less of it droning on and on about this and that."

Five Nudists came crashing down upon her, staring down the tip of the parasol right before she opened it up again and sent them bouncing away. She spun away from the next lot, flashing behind Tsumugu and giving his bicep a fond squeeze for good measure. He snarled and twisted, Tailor's Dagger punching through the gap she'd occupied not seconds before as she kept twirling onwards, giggling all the way. Needles chased her down, running her towards another pack of ten. Blades danced all about, not one coming close to marking her skin. She broke free of the pack easily, reappearing in the stands with a smug little smile and a wave as they snapped to her new position. They smiled smugly back, and withdrew detonators from chest-mounted pouches. She looked down, noting the ring of plastic explosives at her feet and all the way around the stadium.

"Aww, shoot. It was a trick."

The eastern block of the student seating was lost in a column of fire.

* * *

They bashed and brayed against the bulkhead, expending all the strength of their uniforms and when that failed, threw themselves in waves against the outside walls, hoping that the steel there might be somehow thinner. They knew the cowards were hiding out in the Sewing Club Laboratories. It was only a matter of time before they laid their hands upon them and dragged the former council members kicking and screaming before the grace of Lady Ryuko.

But just as the handful of remaining Two-Stars leading the pack pushed the horde forward once, they were stilled by the crackle of electronic screens coming into life, Shiro Iori looking out at them.

"Ah, you must be the students selected for the new uniforms. Hold on one moment, I'll get the door open for you. Single file please, you will all be receiving your Two/Half Uniforms shortly. No need to push and shove."

"Wait, we're not here for- "

The student who was too honest for his own good found himself smothered by the crowd and sat upon by no less than five students to keep his mouth shut. Jack Naito, former Knife Throwing Club President, ran a finger up his mohawk of blades.

"Two/Half Uniforms you say?"

"Quite. A testing ground between Two Star and Three Star Uniforms. There's one for each of you, so please, come on in quietly and I'll explain your assignment."

The great metal door clicked and hissed; the horde turned against itself as students jostled to be the first one in line. Clearly the Sewing Club President had made a grievous mistake, but not one of the assembled crowd was going to correct him on his error. At least, not until they were dressed to kill once more.

The bulkhead swung open fully, Shiro awaiting them with five racks of uniforms in tow, each one branded with two and a half stars.

"Very good. Now, once you're finished changing, head back out to the arena. The vice president is waiting there to test your skills. She knows that you're coming, so please, fight her with everything you have."

* * *

Even for a service elevator, the ride up the arena shaft was uncomfortable. The dark, tight space would have been enough to put the fear of God within any claustrophobic, and that was without the knowledge that Nui Harime was running about gutting the Naked Nudists with her bare hands. Even with the Anti-Fiber coagulant still spraying through the cage uninterrupted, the idea of stepping into an enclosed space with not one but two Kiryuins had the Nudist Agents unnerved. Which was far too much power for two incapacitated schoolgirls to have over a pack of grown men.

That awful, high-pitched giggle echoed out again, rattling the cage with the same pace as the rapid-fire sword swings that had been taking place not a few minutes ago. The squad emerged into the arena proper and were greeted with something red, wet and lumpy splattering their uniforms, dripping down from the ceiling. A promise to mankind followed, sealed with a hot rush of air and a punch to the inner ears as one of the extremists detonated herself for the cause. Without a word, a glance upwards or even a heavy breath, the four moved in on their targets.

The process had done its work nicely. Ryuko's skin was aflush with tiny blue-white crystals, Junketsu frozen just as solid, ice pushing out between the stitching. The colour was drained from the pair, rendering them in pale blue and white. Even the wild streak of red in her hair had dulled to a thin slit of blue. Once she was outside the cage, they had about twelve hours before she defrosted fully. Hopefully, enough time to transfer her to Osaka and into the care of the doctor. Why exactly he wanted her taken alive had been an argument hotly debated by the council, but in the end the weight of the reverence afforded to Nudist Beach's creator had pushed down any concerns by all but the extremists, who had declared that they would take Ryuko Kiryuin's head or die trying. Another explosion from above proved the strength of their convictions.

They mobilised, readying ropes and ties to strap the tyrant to the largest of their number. But as Private Ikari slipped the first rope about her arm, a flash of black whipped up and caught him by the throat.

"Get the hell away from my sister."

When Houka Inumuta had called them and agreed to an alliance not an hour prior, Nudists of all uniforms and creeds had drawn up from their hiding places in Honnouji and set to work. They had watched Satsuki battle her sister to the hilt, donning a rogue Kamui and even injuring Junketsu. They had seen her battered, beaten and utterly thrashed about in a fit of rage. And yet here she stood, pitch-black fingernails squeezing down on Private Ikari's throat. Beads of blood bubbled up at the points where she punctured his neck, the other arm protectively wrapped about Ryuko.

"Nudist Beach." She rattled out. "How uncharacteristically bold of you."

Another giggle, another explosion from above. A complaint of "Oh, come on! Try something new, would you?" echoed down towards them.

Those in the cage switched to sign language.

"Make your move, and the boy dies." Satsuki motioned.

"I am not in the practice of sacrificing my men. But we need the girl. You will not stand in the way of that."

"What are your intentions for her?"

"Doctor Matoi wants her captured, not killed. That's as much as I am cleared to know."

Satsuki paused, thought on that a moment.

"How do you plan to escort her past Nui?"

"A two-fold distraction. The Naked Nudists are the first. Inumuta, Ogure and Iori have prepared the second. From there, we're continuing a campaign of misdirection to ensure your sister isn't reclaimed. Release my man, and we have a place for you."

The private was pushed away, shivering but managing to hold his nerve.

"Then time is of the essence. Tie Ryuko to me. I shall be responsible for her."

* * *

Popping Nudists had grown old. The first few suicide bombers had been amusing, what with the pointlessness of their deaths and all, but now they were all doing it, and it was dull, dull, dull! Their needles couldn't hit her, their daggers couldn't come close, and she was dropping them one by one with just a parasol and her bare hands. She was going to be picking meat out from the underside of her fingernails all evening. Ah well, she'd get Ryuko to help with that. Sharp teeth and a soft tongue would do wonders running over her hands. A quick peek downwards noted that her dear sister was right where she'd left her. Well of course. Nui would have sooner broken every one of her talented fingers than allow even a single naked ape to have their way with her family.

Grabbing a Nudist by the arm, she spun him around once, twice, three times and sent him whirling into a pack of his friends, which was pretty good for a laugh. Another came at her from behind, granting him the privilege of losing an arm as his body lost momentum and fell at her feet in a messy heap. She kicked him in the ribs, the body going flying away and knocking the pack over in a tumble of limbs once more. A third attacker was knocked clean out by the borrowed arm, a fourth having to throw himself to the floor to avoid it coming right at him.

The Nudists finally got a clue, falling back into defensive patterns at the call of their leader. Half their number remained, but it was very cute that they thought banding together would save them. She dusted off her dress, returned her parasol to her shoulder.

"Well boys and girls, this has been fun, but I've seen all of your tricks and now you're just boring me."

Without so much as moving a muscle, she leapt back up to the pinnacle of Honnouji. From the Nudist's view, it must have seemed as though an invisible hand picked her up and dragged her away.

"But don't you worry, I'm leaving you in good hands. Girls?"

The Nudists spun about, realising with some horror that an equal amount of Nuis were suddenly standing behind them. She would give a small nugget of kudos to their leader however, as he leapt to action without a blink, tearing the copy staring him down in half with the flick of his dagger and setting the battle into motion once more. Nui left her copies to go at it, returning to Houka and her sword. Or rather, where Houka and her sword should have been.

A featureless wooden manikin knelt in place where Houka had been gasping his last breaths not moments before, her sword sticking clean through the place she'd stabbed him.

"Hmm. Well, isn't that something. Someone shares my excellent taste in pranks."

She pulled her sword free, returning it home to the parasol sheath. Realisation came to her just as it clicked into place. Manikins. Fake bodies. Pranks. Ryuko, in the cage.

"No. No, no, no, no."

She spun about on her heel, and was caught across the face by a fist, launching her from the peak and sending her crashing into the stands. Climbing out from the perfect imprint she left found the arena filling up once more. Honnouji students, dressed in bulkier versions of the One-Star Uniforms with two and half stars emblazoned upon their chests. They pointed to her in the stands, barking and gnashing as they flooded towards her location. Something about promotions, she didn't care to listen. A pack of copies were summoned, looking to her with rare trepidation. As they should, for she was now in a truly foul mood.

"We're being japed. Tricked. Taken for fools. Cover every exit to Honnouji, kill anyone who tries to leave. Yes, that means entering the sewers as well."

She drew her sword from the parasol sheath. The blade was a fine, crystalline thing, so slight and faint it almost didn't seem to be there at all. The guard had been her contribution to the design, a wide rose with whispering vines winding down the handle.

**IMPOSSIBLE BLADE – FLEUR DE MORT**

She released it, the sword floating beside her in mid-air. The students were flooding up towards her, a tide of bodies scrambling over one another in their eagerness to die. And so they would. In droves, until her big sister was in her arms once more. The fool that had lain a hand on her threw himself from the peak, lunging at her with a grossly enlarged arm. He fell into range, and as he did so, Fleur de Mort moved of its own accord, striking out with a single stab. The uniform burst into threads at the gracing of the tip upon the cloth, Life Fibers freed and escaping on the wind. The boy was less fortunate. He froze there, mid-air, his skin growing tight and pale grey until he was allowed the mercy of gravity once more, dropping straight down and landing with a dull thud at her feet.

The copies leapt to their duties, Nui striding forward with her smile tucked away. Fleur de Mort kept pace with her, gliding through the air, tip pointed at the cattle dressed in delusions of grandeur. She was going to make the Naturals Elections look like a joke before the day was through.

* * *

He awoke slowly, his body trying to drag him back down into healing rest but defied by the bumpy trot that shook his bones, the weightlessness of his lower half and that damnable grinding sound. When the haze was blinked away, it became apparent that he was attached to someone's back, his arms resting between golden spikes as Mako Mankanshoku kept on running, jogging through the One-Star district. A big red wagon was joined to her waist by a rope, the former Club Presidents piled up in a heap with haphazard bandages strewn about them. He shifted his arm as best he could, tried to get her attentions. But she was lost in her own world, muttering something about a race to hell. Ungentlemanly as it was, he lent to her ear.

"Let me loose."

"GAA!"

It occurred to him only at the last second that maybe surprising someone with superhuman abilities might have been a poor idea. As it was, the thoroughly shocked Mako immediately leapt a straight twenty foot upwards, taking him and the wagon with her, bringing them all crashing down and throwing a good couple of students overboard in the aftermath.

"G-G-Gamagoori? You're awake?"

"I am. And I repeat. Let me loose."

"No can do, you need a doctor. I might only be a doctor's daughter, but I can tell that if you're left alone, you'll absolutely die of blood loss within the next week, and that won't do! Don't worry, I'm taking you all to the Safe Zone. Your friend is there, remember?"

"I will take my chances. Now, free me or I shall free myself."

She pouted, but obliged, setting the wagon by the side of the road and untying him. Only his torso had been bound to hers, his legs left to dangle behind, and so it was less a dismounting and more an undignified splat back to earth as she released him. Once up and overwhelmed with apologies, they gathered the students that had been lost, giving him time to take stock of the situation.

Satsuki had lost, and was trapped inside the cage with Ryuko, who had been turned upon by Houka, who was working in tandem with a splinter group of Nudist Beach, the Naked Nudists. Whatever their intentions might have been, they had been interrupted by Nui Harime, who had promptly done her usual work. The last Mako had seen, the Grand Couturier had broken a man's spine in half and attempted to roll him into a ball. And then there was him.

No firearms, no helmet. One charge left in the power fist, his armour falling apart under its own weight, the paint scraped off the toes from being dragged behind Mako. Were there any Two-Star students remaining, he would struggle to finish off one of them in his current condition. The idea of fighting one of the REVOCS upper-crust was ridiculous.

But Satsuki was still up there, and so he turned away from Mako, tilting towards the peak of Honnouji once more.

"Nope."

He could have sworn that she had been behind him checking the wagon not a second ago, but now she stood before him in the middle of the road, arms crossed over one another and pouting aggressively.

"Mankanshoku, I appreciate your assistance up until now, but you must move. My lady is in danger."

"But you'll die if you go back up there!"

"It will be a worthy trade of lives."

He pushed past, only to be stopped in place as she wrapped herself about his waist, cheek smooshed up against his back.

"You can't, you can't, you can't! There's no point in giving yourself up for someone if you're just going to make them sad by doing so!"

"She will understand the necessity of the sacrifice."

"Will she? How will you know when Nui's juggling your limbs and playing football with your head?"

"Nui Harime is- "

"She's bad! I know you all think Ryuko is bad, and she is, but Nui is even worse! At least Ryuko can… Ryuko can…"

Thick tears became a river underfoot, washing gently downhill, picking up blood and loose teeth as it trailed towards the sea. Ira sighed, reached behind and patted the girl on the back.

"Your heart is in the right place. But this war will not end without Satsuki Kiryuin at the helm. If I might pass on to ensure that the world may survive, then I will make that trade gladly. She is strong, far stronger than you, I, or any other human. She shall shed a single tear at my passing, wipe it away, and then do what must be done. That is who my lady is, and it is who we need."

Her grip was still too tight for him to remove, the armour complaining her touch. He rested a hand upon hers.

"Please. Allow me to save her."

She was still sniffling, but her arms fell away.

"Thank you."

"You really… really love her, don't you?"

He felt that damned flush choke his throat and flush his cheeks, same as it always did when Nonon touched upon the matter. That childish heart of his, still paralyzing him whenever thoughts of a beautiful, driven woman came to mind.

"I… I do. Can we leave it at that?"

She nodded, wiping splotchy tears away with her sleeve. He offered her a handkerchief from one of his few surviving pouches, and she ruined it with a hefty blowing of her nose.

"Thank you Mankanshoku. It has been a pleasure meeting you. If this academy had even one more of you, things might have ended differently here."

Another wet nod, the tears not yet dammed up. A pat on the shoulder for support, and he was back up the mountain. He was about to ascend towards the gates of hell once more, but then he saw them.

Shadows, flickering across the rooftops but pouring out in packs, coming closer at great speed. Each one in a frilly dress. He doubled back, snatched Mako and threw the pair of them into an alleyway as dozens of Nui Harimes ran overhead, leaping from roof to roof but making no noise as they moved. Their heads jerked about mechanically, inspecting every little angle as they went, only to turn to each other and silently twitch, moving on and repeating the process.

As the cluster of couturiers reached the One-Star district, they began to drift apart, splitting up and covering more ground in every direction. Three of them dropped down into the main street, and set about picking apart the red wagon and its cargo of students. Ira kept a hand clamped firmly over Mako's mouth as the copies threw students about without thinking, ignoring the way bones cracked and heads snapped back as the bodies hit the ground. They went, layer by layer, until the street was littered and the wagon bare. Not finding what they were after, they clicked their tongues and swivelled on the spot. As one, they leapt to the rooftops, one of them kicking a stirring student in the ribs for good measure before they left. Ira held them there for a long minute before the confidence to creep out came back to him, letting Mako go free and exiting after her.

"They're going towards the Safe Zone." Mako whimpered as they quietly collected the former Two-Star students.

"Then we shall follow."

She twisted back in disbelief as he lay the last of the bodies back upon the wagon.

"But what about Satsuki? Don't you need to go and save her with your love?"

"I am Satsuki's spear and shield, yes. But I was also the protector of Honnouji's students. That remains the same, even now. Satsuki will not be killed straight away. The Kiryuins are far too proud to allow their renegade be done away without any pomp and circumstance. But the people of the Safe Zone will not survive a visit from… whatever those things were. So we shall stop them from doing as they please. Besides, Nonon would never forgive me if I left her out of the rescue plan."

For the first time in their conversation, her face cracked open in a beaming smile.

"Yeah! Let's go save everyone!"

She snatched up the wagon's handle, taking off at great speed with him jogging behind, keeping the students from being thrown about any more than they had already had been.

* * *

They flooded the sewers, parasols up to avoid any disgusting human drippings from staining them. The water, if such muck could be described as such, did not suffer even a single ripple as they went, prancing onwards on godly feet that did not touch the base earth. Theirs was the worst mission. The others had victim-rich environments, with humans to interrogate and pull apart if they didn't receive the answers they wanted. All they had were rats and parasites, and the constant choking stench of filth about them.

But then, in the darkness, one of them caught a glimpse of a figure far ahead of them, running through the gutters. She had covered her shame in a black military jacket, but they knew those shapely legs anywhere.

They picked up the pace, relaying the good news to the original and asking for permission to be let loose.

After all, if they had to dirty themselves with human waste, why shouldn't they be allowed first playtime with their dear eldest sister?

* * *

Two hundred and seventy-nine students had come at her. Two hundred and seventy-nine students had paid for their arrogance, and lay stinking about with open throats and punctured chests. Fifty-one Nudists had come at her, and the last one was taking his sweet time dying. The mohawk man couldn't keep up with her, only barely able to deflect Fleur de Mort and earning himself her delicate touch for his audacity to face her. And yet, he would just not die! Darkened patches run under his skin, refusing to spill sweet red and join with his brethren.

Fleur nipped forward, mohawk man throwing himself to the side to avoid getting impaled. Not far enough, as the flying rapier speared his left arm and pinned him to the cage roof. The grunt of pain was last satisfying than she'd hoped. But no matter, she had him now. Fleur slipped free, returning to her hand. The temptation to lick the blade clean was great, but she would never hear the end of it should word somehow make it back to mother. So she settled for trailing a finger down the blade, keeping him fixed in her sights as she brought it to her lips, puckered for a kiss. The effect was completely ruined by a lack of blood upon her finger, or even on the blade.

"Oh come on now! You're being most unsporting! I stab you, and you bleed out! I punch you, and your guts fall out! Everyone else here got with the program, so what makes you so special?"

He rose slowly, holding what should have been a crippled limb up to the sunlight. Those darkened patches swarmed the point of entry, the hole in his skin sucking shut in a matter of seconds.

"Artificial Life Fibers, monster. Experimental Nudist technology. Sewn under the skin, they harden and heal in response to damage, no matter the source. No super strength or speed, but they'll protect me from the worst of your ravages. Go ahead, do your worst. I'll show you the enduring might of the human spirit."

"Artifical… ugh. Argh. Eww. Yuck. No, I'm sorry, but no. Could you not have called them nanomachines or something… anything else? I mean, you'd still be a plagiarist, but at least I wouldn't want to throw up right now."

"Take it up with Doctor Matoi."

"Oh sweetie, don't you know that good girls go to heaven? The doctor's in the other place. I sent him there myself."

The infuriating man just chuckled. Low and slow, as if he were trying to remember how the act of laughing worked.

"A Life Fiber monster, blinded by clothes. How amusing."

A hot flush ran through her, and she nipped forward, burying Fleur through his chest. He gasped, and she gave it a twist for good measure.

"You know, I was trying to be nice with the quick and easy mass slaughter, but now you've really ticked me off. Let's see how much damage those faker fibers of yours can take, hmm?"

Meaty forearms wrapped around her, pushing her flat against his naked chest. He reeked of gunpowder and sweat, yet another reason why she'd taking a long bath with Ryuko once this messy affair was all said and done.

"Aww, are you going to blow yourself up as well? It really didn't work out too well for all of your friends." She purred, stoking his chin.

"Aikuro! Now!"

She was about to chastise him for shouting so close to her ear, when she felt it. The kick of a sniper rifle and the rush of power that followed. She had no words for the sensation that came rushing towards the arena, only that it lay heavy with a thick pressure that gave even her pause. Releasing Fleur, she twisted about in his arms, bringing herself around just as the pure red bullet slammed into her face, the sheer impact of the shot throwing mohawk man clean from his feet and smashing her head into his chin. They hit the cage roof hard, breaking his clutch open and bouncing her away. He found his feet first, yanking Fleur from his chest and casting it aside.

"Allow me to give you two pieces of information, monster. One: the shot you just took was an Anti-Life Fiber Bullet. Two: It's about to turn your own Life Fibers against you. Your own body now considers itself a food source."

Cigarette smoke picked up, drifting towards her.

"In short, you're about to devour yourself whole, and there's nothing you can do about it."

"Wow, that sounds like a super good weapon."

She raised her head to look at him and smiled. The Anti-Life Fiber Bullet pulsed a furious red between her teeth.

"Shame you didn't hit me with it."

She spat it out, the slug falling into the mesh of the cage. As promised, the second it touched the dull red metal it began to dissolve, the cage fading into nothing under them. Mohawk dropped like a stone onto the carved-up arena floor, Nui floating down neatly next to Ryuko. Or rather, the manikin of Ryuko, the facsimile of her sister coming apart in pieces with only the lightest hand upon the shoulder. Good. Not a pleasing good, but good nonetheless. That rather uncomplicated the situation.

Mohawk stormed to his feet, Tailor's Dagger in hand. Nui whistled, and Fleur de Mort whipped into action, piercing him from the other side. He stumbled forward, finding himself pressed up against her once more. Him on one knee, her with his head cupped between her hands.

"So, quick question. How confident are you in those fake fibers?"

She twisted her head to the side, dodging the spot of bloody spittle.

"Yeah, that's what I thought."

She twisted his head in return, winding it all the way back until the bones crunched. The Nudist leader went limp, slumping over in a pile at her feet. Another whistle, and Fleur de Mort withdrew itself from his body, returning to its faithful position by her side. She looked in the direction of the shooter, gave him a cheery smile and a wave. What a lucky man. He got to be the lone survivor that told all his little friends how hopeless their continued struggle for survival was. And all because she was too busy to go up there and gut him as well.

She dropped off the side of the arena with a little "hup", walking away from the academy. The Nui Network was making its reports, dozens of sweet little voices informing her as to where all of the rats were hiding. Satsuki in the sewers. Ira and Mako in the Safe Zone. Riots and turf wars igniting in every district, now that Ryuko was seen to be out of the picture. And so, so many Nudists left to cull.

She kicked open a manhole cover, and dropped in. Best to take care of family first.

* * *

Honnouji was rebelling against itself. With the queen not only wounded, but bested on city-wide television and Nudists enacting open war, the city had done as it always did: fought and bleed and killed for power, broken bones and exhausted limbs be damned. Ryuko was gone, and anyone who still had a working uniform was pushing to take her place. They raged back and forth up the long hill, pushing to be the first one upon the throne, uncaring for however many bodies lay beneath their feet to make it there.

Admirable effort, but ultimately wasted. As Nui vanished out of sight, Maiko took the stage. A camera was set up before the throne, overriding the images of the broken bodies strewn about the arena. Transformed into her full regalia, she took a comfortable seat upon a large cushion, and grinned to her new subjects.

"Honnouji, we are all of us, deeply wounded by the abduction of our beloved queen, taken from us by these Nudist spies and their collaborator, Satsuki Kiryuin. In order to maintain order in this difficult time, we will require discipline and steady hands. And who better to administrate over such proceedings than the Disciplinary Committee? As such, I, Maiko Ogure, will be taking over as emergency leader and temporary Student Council President until these troubled times are behind us. People of Honnouji, I beseech you; cease this in-fighting and set your efforts to hunting down those that would seek to tear us apart. Find the Nudists. Find Satsuki Kiryuin, and bring them to me, so that I may find out what exactly these fiends have done with Lady Kiryuin."

**(TEMPORARY) STUDENT COUNCIL PRESIDENT – MAIKO OGURE**

Even from here, she could feel the sheer discontent that pushed back up against her from the underclasses, thousands of voices pitching their disapproval at her reign. For a moment, she actually understood Ryuko's bloodlust. The idea of all those people fighting back against her, against her rightful rule, made her want to leap from the pinnacle and teach them a violent lesson. She pushed it down, smothering the heat with cool logic. The time for fighting was over. She held the keys to the kingdom, and there was nothing they could do about it.

Strength. Power. Prestige. Money. All of it was hers now. All she had to do was impress that upon the ignorant masses. The Disciplinary Committee would allow the riots to burn on for an hour or so, just to really exhaust the fools. Then they would sweep through the streets, cracking heads and forcing knees to bend. And once that was done, there would be no new uniforms handed out. They would be circulated through the Disciplinary Committee, given to her loyalist followers. An elite cabal to ensure the new age.

"Very well, you blood-drunk fools. Scream and batter one another, or break yourselves upon the gates to the academy. I don't care either way. But know that anyone not aligning themselves with the new student council will be crushed beneath the wheel of progress. Lady Ogure, out."

She cut the camera feed, adjusted herself upon the throne and listened to the city burn, a smug purr upon her lips. It was a shame to lose Houka and Shiro, but they had outlived their usefulness the moment they decided that the cause was more important than holding Honnouji. All she needed to do was perform the necessary amount of grovelling before Nui to preserve her life, and then the blonde harlot would take off after the Kiryuins, leaving Maiko to become the new queen of Honnouji. She had endured Ryuko's tantrums for the best part of a year. One more act of bowing and scraping before another REVOCS nutjob, and it would all be hers.

* * *

They'd followed her to a water treatment facility under Honnouji, but the trail had gone cold, their target's footsteps muffled by the rush of water and engine roars. Still they continued to fan out, inspecting every nook and cranny in systematic fashion. The original would not be best pleased if they missed something.

A copy paused, cocked its head to the side at the sound of a slight grinding. It turned about, hoping to confirm the phenomenon with one of her sisters. It found itself alone, the other two having drifted off out of sight, despite strict instructions to always remain within line of sight, especially when dealing with Satsuki. Grumbling under its breath, it filed a complaint to the original and went off after the pair, drawing up a chastising speech taken from mother's greatest hits.

Weightlessness overtook it, legs no longer obeying commands. The copy's mind went racing even as it fell to its knees, trying to understand what had torn its throat open right up until the last rattling gasp.

The last Nui copy lost its form with the slitting of its throat, popping back into a paper doll. Satsuki tore the remains in half to ensure it would not rise again, and listened out for the ruffle of fabric. Only the machinery about her kept chugging along, and so off she went, carving scars along the walls with her transplanted fingernails, breadcrumbs for other Nuis to chase her with. She'd continued to create the impression of carrying Ryuko ever since she had split apart from Nudist Beach, refusing the invitation to join them on the trip to Osaka. The plan would not work unless Nui's tunnel vision was focused entirely upon Honnouji. If she turned her gaze away from the city too soon, her wicked mind would join the dots and beat the submarine to Osaka before they had a chance to properly imprison Ryuko. If turning herself into bait was the best chance they had, then she would dance upon the hook for as long as it took.

She put a foot wrong and was reminded of just how little time that might be, a jagged lance of pain running down her flank. Cracked ribs, one of many reminders from her fight with Ryuko. She put a fist to her side, focused herself to stay awake, to keep moving.

There was a crackle in her ear, the worried, tinny tones of Aikuro entering the Nudist earpiece she'd been reluctantly granted.

"Satsuki, Nui's moving towards you. Tsumugu is down. How are things on your end?"

"The dragon roams the seas. I've just dispatched of some of Nui's copies. Three hours remain."

"We cannot dance around her for three hours. You cannot dance around her for three hours, not in your condition. Fall back to the coast, lay low there. Lovers and Toad are making their way there as we speak, you'll have support."

Lovers and Toad? Oh, Mako and Ira. A sigh of relief passed her lips, foolish and premature. Just because he wasn't a heroic corpse now did not save him from Nui's wrath later.

"Good, I'm glad they're in retreat. But going to the coast puts unequipped individuals in danger."

There was a grunt on the other end of the line.

"Okay, okay. I've got Tsumugu, and I'll come to you. Same locale as the last one."

"I do not need- "

She caught herself, the echo of a giggle floating down the pipes. She tore the earpiece away and threw it downstream, skulking back in opposite direction. The giggling was growing louder, bouncing from wall to wall without direction or cause. She slipped into the shadows and waited, her talons primed and ready to silt another throat.

"Oh Satsu-ki! Where are you?"

Her name kept repeating, washing over her in that sickeningly sweet pitch. Satsuki held her breath, kept watch for blonde and pink.

"Come on Satsuki, I just want to play! Let's start with twenty questions. First question, is Ryuko with you? Because I can't seem to find her anywhere, and it's making me super, super, super upset!"

She let the silence hang, turned her eyes to the ceiling. Just in case Nui had rediscovered her penchant for climbing the walls again. Nothing there. At least, nothing she could see, which meant nothing in her current situation.

"Oh, I get it. You want to play hide and seek! Okay, I shan't bother counting then, seeing as you've hidden yourself already. Sooooooooo…"

Satsuki pulled her hands closer in, chanced glances left, right and upwards.

"Ready or not, here I- "

She snapped downwards, ready to impale the floor. But nothing came. The giggling faded, and even the dripping of water seemed to stop as she held a hand over her mouth and silently released her constrained breath. Only the damp stone underfoot, the sweat-soaked jacket plastered against her back and steady thump of her own heartbeat as she counted the seconds, and readied herself to see which wall Nui would burst out from.

* * *

The world tasted like bad mouthwash and came back to her in fuzzy, pounding waves. Every fibre of her being was telling her that she shouldn't be awake right now, and yet some bastard was bringing her back to reality. She shoved back against it, but she was all stiff and aching, and her feeble attempts sent the world rushing upwards. She came dimly aware of sounds, some loud, annoying people shouting back and forth with words that just wouldn't stick. Something about not enough time. If they didn't have enough time, why were they using it to bother her beauty sleep? God knew she'd earned it, after what had happened with Mankanshoku.

Mankanshoku. The Naturals Elections. Satsuki.

She jerked up, pushing against the fuzziness. One of her arms found control, and she scrubbed her eyes, forcing herself back into the realm of the awake.

"Easy Nonon, easy. We're moving now. There's a boat that'll get you out to Osaka."

"Toad? What the fuck is going on?"

"Language, and I'll explain later. Just stay put for now."

Sight returned, and with it the embarrassing knowledge that she was being princess carried, tucked up in Ira's arms and bound in blankets, Mako Mankanshoku bobbing along beside him.

"God damn it Toad, put me down, or so help me…"

"I wouldn't do that if I were you. There's still loads of morphine in you." Mako chirped.

"Yeah, and who's fault is that?"

"Nonon, be nice. She's also the reason you received medical treatment."

Looking about, they were definitely in a hospital. Pale walls and the stink of disinfectant. When she went to scratch her arm she found it caked in plaster and tied to her chest.

"Toad, I am not so out of it that I can't get an explanation. What is going on? Where's Satsuki?"

"I don't know. I thought she was in the cage, but she's vanished into thin air."

"I'm sorry, cage? You're going to need to wind it back a bit."

A deep breath was sucked in from below, pulling some papers out the hands of an unfortunate nurse.

"Satsuki beat up Uzu and me, and she was very mean to me during it. Gamagoori beat Inumuta, but not really, because it was a plot, I think. Satsuki and Ryuko had a big fight in a cage, because Ryuko didn't want Satsuki to get away from her. Gamagoori had a big fight too, against the rest of the Two-Stars. Satsuki made a Kamui, Satsuki lost the Kamui, Ryuko was very upset about the Kamui and beat her up extra for it. Then Inumuta was like 'I called in Nudist Beach thirty-five minutes ago', but he got stabbed, but not really. Nui's here, there and everywhere, she killed a whole lot of people, the city's in Naturals Elections round two because Ryuko's gone, Maiko's the new president, which is weird because that's actually Nui's job as the vice president, we collected the Two-Stars that Gamagoori fought so they could get better, but we got here and killed a bunch of Nui clones because they were being mean to my friends, but then we got a call from Inumuta saying that he and Shiro have gone with Nudist Beach to Osaka and they've got Satsuki's swords and Ryuko, who's in a tube now. So now we're also going to Osaka, but Gamagoori wants to stay here and look for Satsuki, which is a really bad idea because Nui's coming here right now and so we really need to get out of here before that happens, and I have no idea what she's going to do if we're not here but my friends are, so now everyone's evacuating out to sea, and I'm hoping that Nui can't swim."

Mako exhaled.

"I think that's everything. Oh wait, I've got your monkey here. Umm, but I kind of broke her during our fight. Sorry."

"Lady Mankanshoku, Lady Harime has just arrived on the outer wall."

Mako went very pale, and picked up the pace.

"Okay, so now we need to evacuate super-duper fast, except I have no plan for this which didn't involve Ryuko asking Nui to go away very nicely."

"We do not need a plan. I will meet her on the field of battle, hold her back for as long as I can. You two will escape and go to Osaka."

"No offence Toad, but you look like shit. She's going to tear through you in seconds."

"Maybe. But if it keeps the people here safe, it will be worth it. Besides, I am banking on something. Satsuki didn't go with Nudist Beach, and Nui isn't parading her body about. She has no leads, no information and no clue. I am Satsuki's right hand. I have information she needs. I will find Satsuki through her."

"Oh great, I'm so glad your plan is 'get tortured for information, then die.' You're a fucking idiot, you know that?"

Ira said nothing, merely putting a hand on Mako's shoulder. When she paused, Nonon was passed down, which was even more humiliating because Mako was barely any taller than she was.

"Take care of her, Mankanshoku."

"Oi, no, I am not… Toad! Ira, you get back here, Gods damn it!"

She found the strength to kick back against Mako, tumbling out her arms and hitting the floor. The world spun, but that was the last protest she could muster as the blood rushed to her head and she was drowned in fuzzy darkness once again.

* * *

"What a lovely place you have here. It's so… well, mother taught me not to say anything if I had nothing nice to say, so let's just call it 'quaint' and move along, shall we?"

Nervous One-Star students flanked her, stuck in sweaty salutes.

"Although, if you think about it, on a cosmic scale, nowhere's really 'safe', so to speak. We could all get blown away by a meteor, or evaporated by a gamma ray burst out of deep space. Just like that. Wouldn't even have time to register the atmosphere being obliterated and life as we know it coming to an end. What I'm saying here is, I'd like to talk to the manager about the name, and some other things."

She picked out the youngest one, pinched his cheeks until blood broke the surface.

"So, who's going to be the good little boy or girl that tells me where Mako Mankanshoku and Nonon Jakuzure are, hmm? Oh, and if you've seen my sisters, speak up quickly and you'll get a prize."

"NUI HARIME!"

"Oh, how rare. Someone's actually approaching me for once. Shame it's the one I wanted least."

She flickered from student to student, coming out behind Ira as he pushed out the crowd she'd caught in the middle of evacuating. Naughty little boys and girls, trying to flee the ship when she still had so many questions.

Ira snatched her by the back of her neck, whipped her at the outer wall. He had barely finished demanding the One-Stars help the crowd before she was in front of him again. The great fist came at her, only to be caught and twisted, Nui pulling it all the way to the right and driving him to a knee.

"No, no, no. We're not screwing about any more. I had my fill of Nudists, and look where that got me. So you…"

She would have continued, had he not slugged her in the face with his other hand.

"Congratulations, you got me to stop talking. That's the most damage I've taken all day."

It was his time to go airborne, as she spun him about and threw him through a house. Stalking through broken bricks and busted furniture, she found him embedded nicely in the kitchen wall, the second floor coming down on his shoulders.

"As you're not going anywhere, let's play twenty questions. Where are the girls?"

He smiled a bloody smile, one eye sealed shut by reopened wounds.

"Which ones? I know quite a few women."

"Cute."

She took up a steak knife, drove it into the exposed shoulder. He bit down on his bottom lip, the one open eye fixed dead upon her.

"Ooh, you're not a screamer? I could have a lot of fun with you."

She held a finger to the knife handle, and pressed down on it just so, the blade sinking a little deeper.

"I like the non-screamers. They take a while to get going, but once they do, they just don't stop. It's a glorious sound, to the sure. You're a big strong stoic man, aren't you Ira?"

No response. She was getting a lot of that today. No matter. He'd talk soon enough.

"I must say, this explains a lot about Satsuki. Didn't know she was into beefcakes, but here we are. That's kind of cute, in its own way. About as far away from the rest of our tastes as possible. Typical teenage rebellion, trying to get as far away from the rest of the family as she can. Oh, but where are my manners? I should get you a fork as well."

She went through the cutlery draw, and as she found the bluntest of the forks, the gauntlet snapped shut around her head. Lighting burst into life, a hellish corona that ripped out, blue-white bolts tearing up the kitchen walls and setting the house ablaze in twenty different places. With one last groan, the power fist died down, smoke bellowing out the joints.

"Oh daddy, shock me harder. I've been a bad girl."

She peeled back the fingers, pulled the heavy hand from her head.

"Now look what you've done. Now my hair's all frizzy."

She patted down the errant strands and jammed the fork into the other shoulder. The fires were quickly going from strength to strength, consuming the building about them.

"Well, this is no place for twenty questions now, is it? Let's get you back to Honnouji, and we'll have some real fun. Today has been just rotten, and I need to let off some steam."

She dragged him from the rubble, ignoring all his pitiful swings and headbutts as they exited the house. The crowd was still there, but they looked more defiant now. Shining looks in their eyes, clenched fists with makeshift weapons. Pigs glaring at the farmer. How cute.

"It goes without saying that I'll be coming back for Mako and Nonon. Unless, of course, anyone feels like telling me where they are right now? Again, information on my sisters earns you a fabulous prize."

"You'll get nothing here, Nui Harime. There's no- "

"Oh, do shut up."

She clocked him in the face, Ira going limp in her grip. She turned to the crowd once more, but looked past them, to the little tugboat fleeing the port as quickly as its antiquated engine would allow. Something to look into, and there was a lot to look into as there was. This was going to require a lot more heads to put together. Good thing she was in the second most abundant source of sewing materials on the planet.

"Well everyone, as much as I would love to work you all over, I've got important matters to attend to. But don't worry, I'll be coming back soon to play with all of you as well! Oh, and don't think about running away, cause then you'll just die tired!"

Turning on her heel, Ira cast a heavy groove into the dirt behind her as she walked, the doors to the Safe Zone opening as fast as they could.

"You're an only child, aren't you Ira? You won't be able to empathise, but there's a certain taboo quality to playing with toys that aren't yours. Ryuko always did love stealing my stuffed animals, even though she insisted she was too old for them."

She giggled, not minding the lack of response for once.

"What I'm saying Ira, is that you and I are about to have a lot of fun together."


	15. Intermission

Chapter 15: Intermission

He crept through the sewers, following the shadows to their deepest pits with needles at the ready. For what good they'd serve him against Nui, given that she'd taken Nudist Beach's third-strongest weapon head-on and barely even blinked. But the weight was a comfort in his hand, the promise that, should the damned Lolita burst out, he could at least go out the same way as his comrades. Standing on his feet, screaming defiance in the name of humanity.

The dank, fetid air was broken with a scoff. Look at him. One less than desired outcome and he was thinking like a Naked Nudist, ready to pull the cord as though it was the only way to bite back against the Life Fibers.

"I suppose I'm just taking up your share of pessimism, hey, Tsumugu?"

The big man slumped across his shoulder said nothing, his head still hanging loose from where Nui had grabbed him by the neck and twisted. Aikuro had almost pulled the trigger again, if not for the look his old friend had shot him just before he cracked. They'd both known that the second bullet would have been just as wasted as the first.

And so it was that he was looking for a new weapon to point at the little darling. Satsuki's last position showed her washing out to sea, so she'd probably ditched the earpiece the second their conversation had been interrupted by whatever that awful, high-pitched titter had been. From there, it was a simple matter to follow the waterflow back to her assumed last location. He'd search for her while the car came around and if he couldn't find her by that time, he'd just have to leave her behind, however much the idea of such a course disgusted him. For as strong as she was, the idea of abandoning a girl only just on the cusp of adulthood in nought but a borrowed jacket and her birthday suit was something that simply did not take. Especially in her condition.

He reached the estimated spot, setting Tsumugu down in a particularly shaded corner with a promise to return. With nothing more than a torch and a gut feeling, he set out, barely raising his voice above theatrical whispering as he poked the light about, shining it down pipes and tunnels for little more than split seconds in his hunt for silhouettes. More often than not, he would only find his own shadow and jump at it as though it were dressed in pink. After ten minutes of this, he received his alert. The car was ready. It was time to go.

But as he turned down a tunnel and headed back towards Tsumugu, he found himself dragged back, a pale arm caught around his throat. The torch hit the ground in a clatter as he went for his needles, jamming them behind in a raking motion to get a feel for his assailant. Two of them stuck true, but the rest were lost as his wrist was ceased upon. Throwing himself limp, he managed to slide out from the chokehold, twisting away and drawing his Tailor's Dagger.

The girl holding his wrist was not the one he'd expected, Satsuki blinking as the torchlight fell upon her.

"What are you doing?" She motioned, checking in both directions as he put away his weapon.

"Looking for you. Nui's returned to Honnouji Academy, and the Disciplinary Committee are sweeping the streets, knocking heads and pressing the boot down. With Ryuko out of the picture, all Nudist Beach operatives have been instructed to bail before Maiko sells us out."

He chanced one of his winning smiles.

"And I seem to be in the habit of helping former students get out of tricky situations."

Satsuki threw his hand away a touch harder than necessary, disposing of the sign language.

"Very well. What of my companions?"

"Last I heard, they were sneaking out with other members of the Safe Zone, heading for Osaka."

"Good, then let us be away."

"Wait."

She paused, already stalking off in the direction of the car.

"What?"

"Would you care to borrow my shirt? Trousers too, I'm not picky."

She shrugged the military jacket on a little tighter, the Nudist Beach logo clear upon her back.

"I have borrowed only what I need."

"As you wish."

They made their way back, him guiding the way with torchlight and her glaring down every darkened space like it had personally offended her, claws at the ready. As they came close to the pick-up point, a jolt of shock ran through him as Tsumugu's body turned over, rolling out of the dark patch it had been left in. Satsuki immediately entered a fighting stance, Aikuro finding his dagger once more as the body rose up in sluggish, awkward movements.

"Tsumugu?"

The big man collapsed, face working through an assortment of confusion and looking about blankly.

"Aikuro? Are you there? I can't see much."

Courage beat out caution, and he ducked down to his side, offering a hand.

"Yes, I'm here. Can't say I was expecting you to be."

His motor functions were slow and jerky, but he was able to stand and get an arm over, and that was all that was needed.

"I owe the doctor another life debt, it would seem. Wasn't expecting to heal so well that I came back from the dead. How long was I out?"

"Assuming you were dead from the moment I was informed of it, then it has been thirty-six minutes, thirty-seven seconds."

Tsumugu snapped towards Satsuki, blurred vision fixing almost upon her.

"You."

"You have your grievances, and I shall acknowledge them. But this is neither the time nor the place, and you do not have the capacity to fight me as you stand."

"To be fair young miss, you're not looking too hot on your feet either."

Satsuki shot him a poisonous look. It would have been better received if not for the raw red outline of a school swimsuit on her torso. Kamui Fukusei had taken quite the bite out of her, gnawing off a good couple layers of skin and going down to the muscle in places. Not a condition to be running about in the best of times, let alone roaming a sewer.

"So long as there is breath in my lungs and strength in my body, I will continue to fight."

"Well, the good news is that we can all take a break. Come along children, the car's not too far off."

Tsumugu grumbled something and Satsuki continued to glower, but they fell in line regardless, a limping, slouching trio all the way up to the exit pipe. At the click of his keys, the Naked Shooting Star rose up out of the water, freshly repaired thanks to Honnouji's Metalworking Club for the low price of passing them all in history class with flying colours. The wheels had been replaced with waterwheels, with two turbines sat upon the boot.

**NAKED SHOOTING STAR – LIFE AQUATIC MODE**

"Now, I know your mother probably told you not to get into strange cars, but…"

His quip was lost as Satsuki threw the rear door open and situated herself in the back seats, looking back to him as though he should get a move on. Which, to be fair, was completely reasonable in the current situation. Tsumugu was guided into the passenger side, and with some last-minute checks to make sure everything was watertight, they slipped under the waves.

No sparkling waves and colourful fish for them, only the column of stone that held Honnouji aloft and the rush of bubbles through dirtied port waters as he turned the bumper out towards open sea. But they were out and away, and that was deserving of some relaxation. Not that you'd think it to look at his passengers, still seated bolt upright and tensed up despite the obvious haze of sleep trying to claim them both.

"Miss Satsuki, you'll find some medical supplies under your seat. Please help yourself, and take one of these."

He blindly passed back a needle, feeling it slip away.

"I am my own protection, Nudist. I don't need such a disposable weapon."

"Oh, it's not for fighting. Place it into your forehead when you're done tending to yourself and it'll put you right to sleep. I can't promise that it'll fix you up completely, but you'll be full of vim and vigour by the time we reach the base."

"You expect me to drug myself in this situation?"

"Typical Kiryuin." Tsumugu grunted. "Looking down on human- "

He stopped, slumping deeper in his seat and snoring. Aikuro presented the needle in his forehead with a flourish.

"Of course, I leave it up to your digression. Just thought you might like to take a break."

There was a scoff from the back seats, followed by the rattle of rummaging as she set about dressing her wounds. Aikuro kept his eyes on the tides, and flicked on the radio. This trip probably wasn't going to be as talkative, and he did so hate a quiet car ride.

* * *

Honnouji's new civil war was beginning to die down as she reached the gates, helped in part by her cute little copies swarming the streets and breaking up fights to clear her a path, no matter how many limbs got broken or torn off in the process. After the third such public display of power, the message had finally started to sink in, with students dropping to their knees and allowing the Disciplinary Committee to restore order while she carried on. Back up at the peak, and the ravaged stadium was receiving the necessary TLC that it deserved. The corpses she'd created were being catalogued and bagged up, the arena lowered back into the ground and a great many students generally looking quite relieved that they were working behind the walls instead of out on the streets.

She found a Two-Star dressed in literary armour, tapped her politely on the small of her back and copped a feel of her buttocks for good measure. The mountain of a girl swept around with steam hissing from her nostrils, only to drop to a knee when she noticed who wanted to address her, and who she was hauling behind her.

"Lady Harime. My apologies! I thought you some miscreant."

"Oh, you're very much forgiven. But I'll need a favour to seal the deal. Could you throw this one into the detention halls for me? I'd see to him myself, but I really must have a word with your boss."

"O-Of course, milady! I, Agari Gorimi, shall see to this post-haste!"

**LIBRARY NOISE PROTECTION COMMITTEE LEADER – AGARI GORIMI**

"That's great, thanks."

Ira was in the other girl's arms before she could waste any more of Nui's precious time with sycophancy. A hop and a bop and a short elevator ride later, and she was in the student council chambers. Maiko Ogure was already bowing, knelt down in the centre of the room. Nui promptly ignored her, making her way around to the minibar and the minifridge around the back of it. A tall ceramic mug sat alone within, whipped cream spilling over the sides and a post-it note bearing her name stuck to the side. A quick sip confirmed the drink. A non-fat pistachio milk, deep mocha, extra cream frappuccino with chocolate syrup and chocolate shavings, served chilled, grande size. Disgustingly sweet, just the way she liked it.

"Oh Soroi, you do spoil me."

She made her way back out to the iron throne and the assortment of chairs about it, keeping an eye out for the familiar cut of a butler's outfit. With him nowhere to be seen, she returned to the centre of the room, striding past Ryuko's throne and heading straight for one of the smaller chairs. Planting herself in the one directly behind Maiko, she put her feet up and made a mental bet on how long it would take the other girl to spring up, disgruntled.

No sooner than her heels had rested upon that fanciful purple cape did Maiko spring up, disgruntled. She wiped the scowl away quickly, spinning about as the picture of subservience.

"Lady Harime. I thank you for your assistance in resuming order, as well as bringing in one of the main perpetrators of this whole horrid incident."

"Oh gosh! The footstool can talk!"

Maiko's brow twitched, but her smile stayed stuck.

"Did you have much luck in locating our dear leader? We've captured a few Nudist spies but we've yet to get them to sing. Of course, now that you're arrived, I'm sure they'll be far more inclined to speak up."

Nui swirled her drink, catching a bit of cream that threatened to throw itself overboard.

"Oh no, there's been no sign so far. Ever since the fight ended, I've yet to see hide nor hair of either of my sisters. I suspect I have a lead though. That adorably misnamed 'Safe Zone' is in full evacuation."

"Yes, I've already sent out peacekeeping forces to prevent any further escapees. We can begin full interrogations of the citizens whenever you please. I suspect Mankanshoku has long been using the place as a Nudist haven, we're bound to dig up something."

"Ah yes, let's just go through each and every one of the piglets, waste my time further. If you want to be useful, how's about you go about tracking that tugboat that managed to slip free before anyone else could escape?"

She set the drink down (on a coaster, she wasn't that miffed just yet) and rose up. Maiko wasn't too much shorter than her, but from the way she shrunk back one would have thought Nui a giant.

"Of course ma'am! I'll have the security footage examined post-haste!"

"And maybe you can explain why this wasn't done sooner? Or maybe you can explain why you're ordering students about at all, given that Ryuko booted you off the council?"

"Someone needed to maintain control, and since the Naturals Elections technically never came to a close, I felt that someone with experience should take the reins, keep the people from falling into disorder! Between the Nudists and the rioting, we're still up in the air on how they even got your sisters out of the cage in the first place!"

She was backing up now, Nui gently guiding her towards the glass doors that led out to the overlook.

"Ah, of course. Which is why you took time out of taking the reins to have yourself crowned the new Student Council President? To maintain order?"

"Yes! I didn't know when, or if, you'd be returning!"

"Oh Maiko, please don't be a liar. You threw yourself on a shiny new title the second you could. It's been one of Ryuko's best jokes for a good while. The piglet who would be queen."

"Ma'am, while your sister and I have never seen eye to eye, I am absolutely devoted to Honnouji! Everything I have done today was in service of its ideals!"

They were out the doors now, Maiko retreating along the long stone precipice.

"Uh-huh. Which is why you hide away and bury yourself in your mansion every Naturals Election, huh? That doesn't sound very idealistic to me."

Maiko found herself with no more room to run, her heel clacking at the tip of the spire. Nui in front of her, and ever such a long fall behind her.

"Maiko, would it kill you to be honest with yourself? Just admit that you're a sucker for a crown. That this humble act is just a front to get under my feet and up my butt. I don't need a brown-noser, Maiko. I need someone useful. And so far, well, you're just zero for four, aren't you?"

For a moment, it seemed as though the snivelling act would continue, as Maiko cast a nervous look behind her. But then her back straightened. A sneer moulded upon her face. She took a step forward, and burst into golden light as she transformed. Good strong wind today, picking up her coattails like a peacock in full strut.

"Fine. You want the truth? Yeah, I leapt at the chance to get up here. The ruling caste right now is just me and Sanageyama, and he's out of the picture right now. Who else was going to do it? Who else has been waiting long enough to do it, biding their time watching Ryuko storm about the place burning things to the ground instead of capitalising on her gains? These idiots?"

She cast her hand over the edge.

"None of them have the vision, the drive, the understanding of what it takes to run this city. They just see shiny baubles and fat stacks of cash, knowing nothing but how to squabble amongst each other for meagre gains. You want to kill me for some assumed failing? Go right ahead."

"Okay!"

"Wait!"

Fleur de Mort was halfway out the sheath, Nui snickering at Maiko's outstretched hands. She kept laughing as she slipped it back into place.

"Just a little joke Maiko. I get it. You're bad, but you're the best I'm going to get. And hey, look, there's your spine. How's it feel, to be reunited after so long?"

"Feels good, ma'am."

"Aww, isn't that grand? Now, on the subject of reunions…"

"They're going to Osaka. Inumuta wouldn't say, but let's be honest, where else are they to go? It's Takarada territory, it's the only set of schools not under our control. I'd bet this uniform on it."

"I'll take you up on that. Should I get to Osaka and not find a hive of nudity, I'll come back and rip that uniform clean away."

"Let me guess. Then you'll rip out my heart and show it to me?"

"Ooh, clever girl."

Nui strode away, collecting her coffee and slurping on the straw obnoxiously. It wasn't until the elevator had carried her away completely that Maiko felt confident enough to return to her chair and start hyperventilating.

"Oh, and by the way."

"Fuck!"

She didn't so much fall out of her chair as she did jump halfway across the room, crashing through the coffee table. Scrabbling in the glass, she rolled over to see Nui standing there, leaning on the back of Maiko's chair with a self-satisfied smile.

"But you… the elevator… you…"

"Ah, don't worry about. Anyway, regarding the whole 'temporary president' thing. Tech-nic-ally, that's my job when Ryuko's away, but seeing as you worked so hard stepping over people to get here, I'll let bygones be bygones and you can run the whole shebang. Besides, I'm utterly awful in management roles. Just ask REVOCS' Human Resources department!"

Laughing far too hard at her own joke, she exited the room and went out to the precipice, stepping off the edge with an opened parasol in hand. Maiko waited a moment longer this time. Looked over her shoulder. Looked over her shoulder again. Called the custodian to dispose of the broken table and sweep up the glass. Looked over her shoulder for a third time. And finally, took a breath to steady herself and spoke to the empty room.

"It's not going to work a second time."

"Aww, you're no fun." The room replied.

* * *

The nurse was a timid little thing with a self-administered haircut and tears permanently threatening to escape the corners of her eyes. Nui liked to consider herself a decent judge of character, but she'd never have expected to be halted by someone so nervous. Yet here she was, standing in the doorway with bottom lip quivering, looking so pathetic that stepping over her corpse would somehow fail to be satisfying.

"I'm s-s-sorry ma'am, but Mr Sanageyama isn't allowed visitors at this time. He's still recovering from the Naturals Elections."

**NURSING COMMITTEE HEAD NURSE – SADAKO MIKAN**

"Do you know who I am, by any chance?"

The head nurse nodded furiously but didn't get out of her way, which is what was supposed to happen when people knew who she was. Nui sighed, and went for her sword. Bloodstains on hospital floors was such tacky imagery.

"Let her in sweetheart. I'm not so battered that I can't hold a conversation."

The girl jolted at the winded voice, disappearing back into the room. Nui trotted in after her, a big smile on her face to make Uzu feel better. He certainly looked like he needed it, all bandaged up in that hospital bed, various cables trailing out from what few exposed patches of skin remained.

"Uzu my boy. How the devil are you?"

"Been better." He chuckled, breaking into a cough. The nurse was all over him in an instant, checking for any complications in his condition. After searching for a great number of maladies that shouldn't have even been relevant to begin with, she was reluctantly waved off and sent away, promising to return if he needed anything. Nui perched herself on the end of the bed, and helped herself to the fruit basket.

"What a bothersome little leech of a woman."

"She's just doing her job. Can't say I blame her, seeing as I'm in here every week."

"Oh yes, this does bring back memories. It was ever so funny watching you try to duel with a sword in your mouth."

"Well, if you will break both my arms…"

"Ah-ah-ah, no whining. You wanted to fight me, and Ryuko and I both warned you it wouldn't end well. Serves you right."

"Speaking of which… what's happened? If I get visitors from the council, it's usually only Mako and Ryuko. You don't make pleasure calls. What's going on?"

Nui peeled an orange in one spin, discarding the spiral of rind with the flick of a hand.

"Ryuko's been taken by Nudists. Houka and Shiro called them in and skipped down. I think Maiko's involved as well, but I'll let her take care of the paperwork before I give her some just desserts. So, I need you to use those special eyes of yours to find her. Take a look at Osaka while you're at it, see if you can't spot a den of Nudists."

He nodded once, and closed his eyes. Nui waited, and worked her way through the orange, tempting as it was to squirt the juice into his face.

"I see them. Large scale operation, right under Osaka."

"And Ryuko?"

"She's not there."

An orange slice got crushed underhand, Nui licking the juice from between her fingers and wiping the residue on the bedsheets.

"So where is she?"

"I'm working on it. Just because I can see the whole world doesn't mean I pick things out in an instant."

"One job Uzu. I gave you one job."

"Hang on, I got something. Ripples in the sea, moving away from Honnouji. No, not that… there. She's in a submarine, not far off from Osaka. They'll probably be resurfacing in the next half hour."

Nui got up, ruffled his hair with the sticky hand.

"Good boy Uzu, very good indeed."

He went to shrug her off, only to find icy-cold fingers holding his chin in place. Nui lent all the way in, putting them nearly nose-to-nose.

"But a whole city is a big ask, even for me. If I was going to hunt down the Nudists before they move Ryuko again, I'd need to take Osaka. And to take Osaka, I'll need an army. Not just my cute little copies, because they pop when they get hit. And for an army, I'll need generals, won't I, Uzu?"

Thin red strands crept up from the underside of her fingernails. They latched onto his cheeks and slipped under the skin, pushing, pulsing against the pale of his pallor as they wormed their way up. Sneaking in through the cracks in the eyes, feeding up towards the temples and weaving webs in the hollow of his throat.

"Wait." He managed to croak out, voice choked and thin.

"No Uzu, no waiting. Not when my soul sister is in trouble."

"If… you go now… you'll lose. Wait… and let them heal. Then you'll have… a real army."

The strands slowed, drifting to and fro in silent waves.

"Three… weeks. They won't kill her… because she's alive now… she's worth something… to them."

The only sound in the room was that of laboured breathing. Nui didn't move for a long, long time. Eventually, she pulled her hand away, the strands sucking out of Uzu's skin and back into her fingers. She rose up, pouting as Uzu collapsed, coughing and gasping for air.

"You are so very, very, very lucky that Ryuko likes you."

She spun about, and the smile was back in place once more.

"Three weeks. Three weeks? Oh, I do so hate waiting. But I guess it gives me time to scout the locale, rally the troops, have another nose about for Satsuki, and let everyone else lick their wounds. Bones won't mend, but I can make some house calls and get any stragglers back up on their feet. Gosh, being the Vice President is a very busy job! No wonder mother usually has me take care of business meetings, they're so much simpler!"

"One more thing… if it's not too much bother."

Uzu weakly propped himself back into a seating position again, quivering and sweating as if in the midst of fever.

"My uniform. If Shiro's gone, could you fix it up for me? And make an alteration. Remove the extraneous weapons, replace them with more swords. I've strayed from the path of a swordsman, tried to defeat Satsuki and Ryuko with trickery. Gotten distracted by Naturals Elections. But I do my best work with nothing but a blade in my hands. So, if you could…"

"Oh, of course! That'll be a doddle. Can't have my best man ill-equipped, now can I?"

"Thank you, Lady Harime."

"You're very welcome Uzu. Now, if you don't mind, I'll get to my next appointment and let you get some sleep. Get better soon, okay!"

And with that, she flounced out the room, leaving Uzu to sag over to the side and grasp the nurse's call like a lifeline.

* * *

"Ira."

He was hanging. He could feel the bite of metal about his wrists and ankles, the taut stretch in his limbs. Disrobed, judging by the chill of wind that swayed his bonds, keeping him in perpetual motion. One of the ocean view detention rooms then, with salt in the air and the faint rumble of Tokyo's sea traffic in the far distance. But the windows were shuttered and the lights dimmed, leaving him barely able to see past his nose even as he forced his pain-dulled senses to sharpen, looking for the source of the voice that whispered in his ear. As far as he could tell, he was alone.

"Ira."

There, again. Familiar, yet too far away. Urging his tired body into action, he attempted to twist about, to see if there was a single mote of light that he might work by. Unlikely. He'd been responsible for contributing reformation ideas during Honnouji's construction. Some might say that solitary confinement was a touch harsh to apply to teenagers, but in fairness, he had been trying to assemble an army to fight for humanity's survival. An evening alone in the dark did wonders to scare persistent troublemakers straight.

"Hold still. I can't unlock these if you keep moving about."

"Satsuki?"

"Who else would it be?"

He felt it now. Weight upon his shoulders, something soft and warm, shifting from side to side in slight motions that brushed against his hair. Shamefully, his cheeks began to burn, and he set his mind reeling in any other direction lest blood pool anywhere else.

"How did you get here?"

"I had an arrangement with Nudist Beach. It went south, and so I laid low, until I heard that Nui had you. After that, well… I built Honnouji. There is nowhere upon this island that I cannot go."

Metal clanked overhead, and Satsuki grunted.

"It's not shifting. One moment, I shall try the ones on your ankles."

"By all means. If there is anything I can do, tell me."

"Hold as still as you can. This is difficult enough as it is."

A soft thud from behind, gentle footprints as she came around. His eyes were starting to adjust, and now he dearly wished they wouldn't. Whatever had happened between her and Ryuko, it had left her naked save for a black jacket hanging loosely on her frame, the Nudist's symbol emblemed upon the back. She stepped in front of him, and he screwed up his eyes, turning his thoughts away from those generous curves and tense muscles. Such inappropriately placed desires would be purged at the first chance, and he would bury his head in sand long after she asked him to raise it.

There was a scoff, and he found himself wishing for a knife to bury in his stomach.

"Honestly Ira, this is neither the time nor the place."

"My apologies milady. I will punish myself the second I am released."

"I knew you had such… interests, but this is ridiculous."

"I know ma'am. I'm… sorry."

"It matters not. Just don't get any funny ideas while I'm down here."

There was a shift of cloth, and he dared to crack an eye open. She was knelt before him, hands moving somewhere out of sight. Same hair, no longer tied back but hanging loose, same as the day they'd met. No bruises, no puffiness about the eye from Mankanshoku. No cut on her lip from Sanageyama.

"Staring counts as a funny idea Ira."

"I would count faking an escape as the same, Nui Harime."

Satsuki looked up at him properly, head tilted to the side.

"What are you talking about?"

"Do not play games with me. Your disguise is too perfect, your lockpicking too lacking. And…"

"And?"

She rose up, smirking at him. The heat faded from his face, retreated from his gut.

"I make no shame of my preferences. I believe self-flagellation to be the path to best straighten the soul. But not once have I made mention of such… side-effects to her. It would be improper."

The thing in Satsuki's form smiled a smile most unbecoming of the stolen body.

"Aww, afraid that you'll be kink-shamed?"

She stepped forward, looped her arms around his neck and pulled him towards her. Try as he might to twist away from the dread chill that hit him in the core, there was nothing he could do to prevent it from spreading out to every inch of his body as she pressed herself flush against him.

"Oh Ira, you have the soul of a maiden."

Frozen lips stuck to his own, a bitter, soapy spike flooding his senses. He bit down hard on the invading tongue, ignoring the yelp as Satsuki pulled back until it snapped, the fake girl tumbling back over herself with her bare backside in the air. She popped up without missing a beat, wiggled the stump of her tongue at him with blood gushing down her chin.

"You two really are birds of a feather. A pair of stuck-up, overly proud prudes."

He spat out the false tongue, rubbery thing that it was. It hit the ground with a wet splat and writhed there.

"If turning away your unwanted advances makes me prudish, then I shall wear that insult gladly."

"Oh boo." Satsuki pouted, the face looking so alien upon her that he could see straight through the disguise to the heart of Nui. "Still, I got all the reactions I was looking for, and so much more. I wonder, what kind of face will she make when I haul your broken body before her? She's so cold even to us, her own family. But you… hmm, I can't wait to find out."

"I don't know what imaginations you've concocted in that sick skull of yours, but my passing will slow her down only after she has avenged me. She will not break. She will not bend. Do your worst, Nui Harime. I shall endure it all, and tell you nothing."

Satsuki-Nui stopped pouting, and merely blinked at him. The smile that followed was the worst thing he'd had the misfortune to lay eyes upon in all his short years.

"Why would I need you to tell me anything?"

The jacket hit the floor, Satsuki-Nui making an exaggerated leaning motion, trying to jut out breast, hip and backside all at once.

"You've been out for a bit and I've had ever so much fun watching you squirm, so let me fill you in. I don't care where Satsuki's gone and you don't know either. But Ryuko's been shipped off to Osaka, and at the advice of my new student council, I'm assembling an army to take her back. Maybe Satsuki is going there too. Maybe she'll wait here and look for you. Either way, she'll come to me eventually. And when she does, well…"

She reached behind her back, and when her hands came back around, they were filled with white sheets covered in stars, a needle glistening with red string in the other.

"That's spoilers for later, so let's leave it at that, shall we? But hey, rejoice! Since you don't know anything, I don't need to work you over! I was going to rip and tear and nip and tuck and sew and sew and sew and take the big fellow off, but now it's nothing but fun experiments from here on out!"

She padded towards him; the needle so blindingly bright in the dark room.

"Although, I might ask you what you've been up to over the last year. There's a lot of REVOCS property that got worked over, and we'd really like to settle the books on that one."

Down in the pits of the Honnouji Detention Halls, only his fellow troublemakers could hear him scream.

* * *

She'd been awake through every part of the trip. Strapped to Satsuki's back and dragged through the sewers of Honnouji, transferred into this deathly-cold tube and forced to stare at the pale blue glass around her for hours on end, all the while listening out for any sort of clue as to their destination. Longing to hear Junketsu's rasp in the back of her mind again. They still wore one another but could not reach out, frost and a thousand pin-pricks putting a wall between them. She couldn't remember the last time they'd been separated. They split from time to time, so that she could cleanse and sleep, but all they needed to do was extend a thought and they'd reconnect. The unending hours had been nothing more than a hellish oblivion, unable even to raise her voice and tell the Nudists to go fuck themselves.

All she had were the questions rattling around in the back of her mind, and no answers that fit. The memory of the night Satsuki left. The protective arm, the threat aimed at the Nudists. The way she'd transferred her over and gone to battle Nui with only an apology and a truly vicious look scathed at Inumuta over some stupid comment he'd made. None of it added up with how Satsuki… was. Too caring, too soft, too…

The real problem was the Nudists, she decided. They had some scheme in mind and damn if she was going to sit back and let them fuck with her and Junketsu. The submarine was surfacing now, her tube rattling about but sadly not falling to pieces and letting her run wild. That was a good mental image. They'd slip up eventually. They were only human. They'd leave her an exit and when they did, she would kill them one by one and return to Honnouji. That would be great news to bring home to mother. The last pocket of rebellion, wiped out single-handedly.

If her body hadn't been completely locked up, she would have laughed. The stupid naked apes had brought her directly to them, and they would pay dearly for it.

The tube elevated, rotated and descended, the outside world nothing but industrial noise and boots in motion. She was set down with a thunk, the tube travelling forwards for a time. More rotation. More movement. The lights outside didn't remain fixed, dimming and brightening in intervals. She was inside a building now, for whatever good that information did her. Finally, the tube was rotated once more, and settled. The machinal noises continued for a goodly while, until the vague shapes outside the tube moved away and she was left in silence.

A new shadow moved up to the pod, extending a shadowy branch upwards. The glass shifted, a clear panel revealing an old man in a long lab coat. A single tired eye worked over her, and he stood there for a while. Just watching. Fucking pervert.

He sighed, and closed the panel up.

"Get that damned thing off of her."

Metal whirred and thudded, electricity thrumming somewhere far away. Neon lights burst into dotted lines on the edges of the tube, beams tracing the edges of her body. Running over the seams.

_Junketsu? I don't know if you can hear me, but we're going to be okay. I promise. Whatever they do to us, I'm going to make them pay for it double._

The first laser slid down, and the tearing began.

* * *

_Ira and his mother had been arguing for a while now. It was somewhat strange, to hear those baritone words making such childish complaints about independence. Stranger still to hear him being shouted down by a woman half his height._

_What was that like, she wondered? The idea of raising her voice to Ragyo was so surreal that she couldn't imagine doing so unless lives were already on the line. Or maybe if a sword was pinned through her back and she had time to gloat before finishing the job. In any other situation, she couldn't picture an outcome that didn't involve being dealt the back of her mother's hand. Worse still, that the same hand might be plunged between her thighs._

_She tried to put the memories away, but knowing what she did now of Ryuko, the lid on that particular memory hole simply wouldn't fit right, pushing up and reminding her that she'd left her little sisters alone with the god-forsaken rapist._

_A chuckle from the forge served as a decent enough distraction for the time being. Ira's uncle might have also been a smaller man, but he worked the forge with the skill of three. Her new blades blazed red-hot, nothing more than lumps of potential right now. A blade for either side of Ragyo's neck. A promise she would seal with blood once they were finished._

_"You know, I knew you'd be a remarkable girl after the last time you swiped him. But I gotta tell you, you must really be something if he's willing to go this far."_

_"I am no-one special."_

_"Really? Cause that boy's coming on twenty, and never in all those years have I ever heard him go hammer and tongs at my sister like this. No young man fights his own mother that hard unless he's really got something worth fighting for, or a woman he's dead-set upon."_

_He dipped a cigar into the forge, took a deep swig of it._

_"Especially not a timid little skirt-clutcher like him."_

_"Gamagoori is one of the bravest men I know. His determination is second to none. That he is about to follow me back to the place that broke him is proof of that."_

_"I'll call that stupidity rather than courage, but hey, you're his friend. I shan't ruin your impressions of him with embarrassing tales of his childhood."_

_She let the conversation drop, which served only to highlight the sudden silence from the next room over. Then, the slam of a door. Another. Another. Finally, the one to the forge bursting open, Mrs Gamagoori standing there with a face like thunder._

_Satsuki wasted no time, and pressed her forehead to the floor._

_"Please accept my sincerest apologies for the injuries that have befallen your son. I take full responsibility for the rightful grievance you must hold toward the Kiryuins, and shall repay you in whatever manner you deem fit."_

_"Lady Satsuki, please, there is no need for this!"_

_For being the largest man in the room, Ira was having the smallest impact on proceedings. Satsuki remained bowed. Mrs Gamagoori kept glaring down at her, her kindly face almost struggling to maintain the expression. The forge kept on burning, the steady clang of molten metal filling the gaps. It took a moment for the lady of the house to gather her thoughts._

_"I accept your apology. But I will not be sending Ira off with you."_

_"Mother!"_

_"I don't know what it is you're actually dragging him off towards. I know it's not what he told me what it was. What he still won't tell me. And until I know what led to him coming home like this, I cannot let him leave home again, no matter how noble he claims the intentions are."_

_"That information will put you in great danger. Knowing this, do you still want to hear it?"_

_"I will be the judge of what puts me in danger, young lady. For example, all this playing with swords."_

_"As you wish."_

_And so she told her. It did nothing to dampen her fears. But at least she saw the reason in letting him go._

* * *

A jolt, and Satsuki was awake, fingers extended and ready to gouge. Blinking the few crumbs of sleep from her eyes, she sat straighter, hoping that the men in the car hadn't noticed her weakness. Falling asleep in enemy care. How foolhardy of her. More foolish still, to dream about the past as if she could change it.

But Tsumugu was still crumpled in the passenger seat, Aikuro bobbing along to some techno song. His shirt had gone missing at some point during the journey. At least he hadn't insulted her dignity by placing it on her. His eyes flicked to the rear-view mirror, a smile splitting his face.

"Ah, there's sleeping beauty. How do you feel?"

"Hardly your business. Where are we?"

"You woke up just in time. We've just pulled into the base."

Indeed they had. Some sort of underground harbour, complete with an artificial beach. Whatever tactical advantage it might have had was lost on her, and she dismissed it as pointless ornamentation. A grunt and a crunch of bone, and Tsumugu was awoken too, glaring at Aikuro before switching it to her. She let him glare. Staring contests served no-one.

The sports car-cum-submarine reengaged with the land, pulling up in front of a line of armed soldiers, headed up by an older man in a lab coat. Aikuro winced at the sight of them.

"I told them not to do this."

"Did you expect them to roll out the red carpet for me?"

She threw open the door before he could answer, marching forward with her hands behind her head. Rifles followed her all the way up, until she came to a stop before their leader.

"Where is my sister?"

"Transferred to her holding cell, as was discussed. We're currently fifteen percent through the Junketsu removal procedure."

Not many would have expected a man of his age to be leading the largest anti-clothing movement above and under the planet. With his stooped back, eyepatch and extensive beard, he looked more the part of a backroom man; pushing those with vision forward with his discoveries. And yet, not one of those behind him ignored his call to lower their arms.

**NUDIST BEACH FOUNDER – DR ISSHIN MATOI**

"However, I must ask that you wait a while longer. Despite your cooperation, the council has asked that you be placed under arrest for the time being. Given the last exchange between us, I was forced to fold in order to bring the idea of your sister's treatment to the table in the first place."

He withdrew a jumpsuit from a deep pocket. She was undressing before he even had time to demand privacy from the men, placing herself in handcuffs to finish the grey, shapeless look.

"Understandable. My cell has been placed close to Ryuko's; I should hope?"

"As close as possible."

"Then by all means, lead the way and make whatever official proclamation you need to as I am escorted."

Doctor Matoi, for all his other faults, had a reasonably sensible head upon his shoulders. The weight of the demanded sentence seemed to be crushing him more than her as she was made the target of the rifles once more.

"Satsuki Kiryuin, Nudist Beach charges you with conspiracy against humanity and the attempted murder of Doctor Isshin Matoi."


	16. I'm Your Villain

Chapter 16: I'm Your Villain 

_His daughter is not but half an hour old, and she is dead. He hammers two fingers upon her chest as hard as he dares, trying to kick-start her heart into life once more. Ragyo looks on passively, waiting for his childish sentimentally to burn out._

_A bone cracks under the force of his attempted resuscitation. He flinches, unable to keep the horror from his face. He's sweating like a man thrown into the deepest pits of hell, and has to mop his eyes to make sure that he is not blinded by his own desires as he watches it shift, the rib rising back up into place. Her eyes open, thin black lines drawn on those piercing blues, and she screams in protest of the world. He sweeps her off the pedestal and cuddles her close, whispering apologies and thanks to whichever deities will hear him._

_Heels clack behind him. A long, pale arm loops around his shoulders. The room is burning with bio-energy and his own regrets, yet his wife's touch has never seemed colder, so chilled that his skin screams danger at him even through his sweat-stained business shirt and lab coat._

_"I must apologise Soichiro. It seems that I forgot the human part of the Human-Fiber hybrid: that tenacious drive to survive in impossible situations. But look at what you've done."_

_She reaches out and strokes the baby's cheek, holding her arms out to hold her properly. The idea of passing her over is absurd – her mother just tried to throw her out with the scrap cloth and alien carcasses for failing a test she couldn't possibly have been ready for. But no-one refuses Ragyo Kiryuin, and so he allows her to be taken from him. She plays the part of a doting mother well, cooing and rocking the little one into a calmer frame of mind. Their second daughter is having none of it, and carries on screaming._

_"Aww, is this room too hot and noisy for you? Don't worry. Mother and Father will get you somewhere nicer."_

_She tilts her head towards the door. Ever the loyal dog, he follows one step behind as they exit the bowels of his self-inflicted hell. The night air is almost too cool, choking him up as his brilliant mind starts forming plans of rebellion. Ragyo slips an arm around him again, kisses his cheek._

_"Breathe Soichiro. This was just a minor setback. Nothing to lose ourselves over. Let us look forward to the future, and give her a name."_

_"Ryuko."_

_Abandoned Child. It comes to mind too quickly. He's never been good with subtlety. Ragyo pauses, stares down at him for a moment. Two outbursts within moments of each other. So much for the henpecked husband. Then her face splits open, a smile cracked all the way up to her eyes without a hint of warmth._

_"Ryuko Kiryuin. Oh Soichiro, you catty bitch. You're lucky I like it."_

* * *

_His daughter is four years old, and he is feeding her to a monster. Ryuko looks blankly around the room dedicated to Junketsu, not quite understanding what her parents have dragged her into or why she and her sisters had to wear all those different outfits earlier._

_A shrine for an angry woven god sits before them, sealed away until humanity's day of judgement. Ragyo leads the procession with slow, respectful movements, as is her divine right as priestess and head of the Kiryuin clan. Ryuko toddles along behind her, following each of Ragyo's long, gliding footsteps with four stubbier ones. He has the third position, his head bowed in feigned reverence and the other children in his arms so they won't run amok. He doesn't expect it of Satsuki, but Nui is still red-eyed and pouty that she cannot wear an outfit made of Life Fibers like her sisters, no matter how small the amount. She's settled for rubbing snot and tears into his shoulder, but it's best to keep her close. Hououmaru takes up the end, silent blessings trailing out the corners of her mouth and hands clasped together._

_Were the situation not so serious, he might have laughed. All this pomp and circumstance for a kindergarten-school girl's uniform to be. All this worship for a beast that feeds on humans._

_Ragyo continues her practised stride all the way to the foot of the dais, and motions for them to stop. Ryuko takes a step too far, stumbles over herself and collapses onto her backside. With no help coming from any of the adults in the room, she rearranges herself back into what she thinks she's meant to be doing, and stands in front of her mother with a small, unsure apology. Ragyo's face morphs into what should be motherly support. It looks as cold and predatory as all of her other smiles._

_"Ryuko, my dear child. It is time for you to meet someone very special. It is time for you to don your wedding dress."_

_Ryuko just nods, still not on the same page. Satsuki whispers a question of "What's a wedding dress?" into his ear. He gives a passable answer about being together forever, a laughable concept to him right now but good enough for a child. He'll give her the real answer later. Nui reaches up and copies her eldest sister, although it's mostly just a bunch of mumbled hissing she feeds into his other ear._

_Ragyo takes Ryuko by the shoulders, and gently guides her up the steps. It takes a little longer than expected; the steps are a mite too large for Ryuko to scale alone, a process frustrated by a child's pride in being able to walk by herself. But Ragyo is ever so accepting of her favoured child, enough to let herself be smacked away and stand aside until Ryuko gets tired and asks to be carried. Finally at the top, the monster formerly known as his wife reaches up and loosens each pin in turn, gracefully lowering Junketsu to Ryuko's level. She eases Ryuko out of her shorts and t-shirt, ignoring the protests that she's not ready for bed yet. Then out comes the knife, and it's all he can do not to look away as it is raked across Ryuko's palm, a look of utter betrayal on her face right before Junketsu plasters all over her, a second ghastly skin that wriggles and writhes, smothering the panicked yelps from within._

_He tries to keep calm, but there's a cold sweat on the back of his neck and his teeth are grinding into dust as Ryuko staggers about, and Satsuki and Nui can sense his worry, twin pictures of the terror he's hoping he's kept locked down. Ragyo doesn't so much as blink, little more than a statue in honour of the cloth as Ryuko drops to her knees, pointed fingers clawing at the smoothness coating her head._

_Black rips through the white, and she's gasping for air as the rest of Junketsu undulates down the rest of her, a shifting, oozing mass of almost-there silk that sticks to the torso and webs the fingers. Ryuko screams, but not the childish pitch of hurt feelings or a bruised knee. It's low and primal, so fierce that Satsuki and Nui's own cries are lost in the maelstrom of power that kicks out from the dais, silencing warning lights and sirens alike as it pushes through all of them. A heavy thud, almost like a heartbeat that lingers in his chest but poisons the blood, a sheer feeling of wrongness as steam leaks out of Ryuko's mouth._

_Junketsu begins to stiffen, moulding into the perfect outfit for her size. A cute little skirt and smock, complete with a sunhat and shoes to run about in. All in white and blue of course. Ragyo wouldn't have it any other way. The twin eyes on the hat betray any fleeting idea that she might be dressed in anything other than a monster given form in clothing. A monster he helped to sew together._

_The steam clears, and he's left shushing and reassuring the others that no, Ryuko's okay and that it's not going to be scary anymore. Young children are so lovely. You can promise them anything and they believe you without question. For a moment, he almost convinces himself._

_Ryuko stands, woozy and bleary-eyed, examining her new outfit. Ragyo finally breaks character, dropping to her knees and embracing her, her sickly words lost in the steam and droning sirens. But Ryuko frowns, bunches her hands over her ears and twists about, looking around for something._

_"Why does he keep screaming?"_

_And that's how they find out Junketsu has a voice. They break him up and bestow Ryuko with a scarf, giving her the very special mission of teaching him how to speak like a human._

_She calls him "Jun" for short. The scarf just pulses with hunger._

* * *

_His daughters are five, four and three, and he is readying himself to leave them behind. His double life is cutting too close, and Ragyo smells blood in the water. Best to cut and run while he can still choose the manner of his passing._

_The girls are cuddled up in a pile in Satsuki's bed, drawn together to watch a movie and passing out long before it has finished. Soroi has tidied up their errant limbs and arranged the blankets so that not one of them will want for warmth. He should have been away five minutes ago, but he's torn between imprinting the image of the three in his mind and running into the room, gathering them up and escaping before Ragyo returns from her late business trip. As much as the idea tempts him, he knows that it cannot be done. Taking one girl would paint him the villainous husband, his claims of evil clothes and human experiments lost under REVOCS propaganda. Not to mention the awkwardness of explaining it to whichever girl she chose to save, why she couldn't see her mother and sisters and Soroi anymore. Taking all three would have Ragyo hunting him down personally, and the resistance is still in its fledgling years, too fragile to be torn apart by the witch's claws. Her pride will be Nudist Beach's shield, until they become too big to ignore._

_Hopefully by then, he will have found the tools of her destruction. He's planted seeds in each of the girls, but whether they'll even remember by the end of the week is up for debate. He'd hoped for them to be so much older before he could point out all the things that were wrong about the world._

_Satsuki seems to have absorbed his message, her thick eyebrows furrowed even in the depths of sleep, as if she's about to start chastising her mother in his place any moment now. If he was to take any of them, it would be her. What a pillar to build Nudist Beach around, so capable and smart even at this age. If he's honest, it's also because she's the one that takes most after him, and the one who seeks his attentions the most. The cost of being only human. He prays that she'll be able to survive in this den of Life Fibers, and apologises for the burden she'll surely face in the years to come._

_Ryuko is chewing on Junketsu again, saliva mushing up the edge of the pure white scarf. The orange eyeball glares at him. It can probably sense his betrayal. Let it. The stupid beast might have settled down, but it's never going to be able to tell anyone. It's her he worries for the most. Ragyo's favourite. The perfect hybrid, already so in tune with her own biology. His message was met with enthusiastic nodding, but he doubts it sunk in too far. He prays that she'll find her own path – neither human nor clothing, but something more, and apologises for flying away from her shoulder on his feathered wings, leaving only Ragyo's devil behind._

_Nui has wrapped herself around both of her sisters, seeking as much contact as she can to warm her perpetually chilly body. He's not sure what to make of her. Yet another one of Ragyo's experiments, one that he wasn't involved with. He's read the notes though, despite his wife's best attempts to bury them deep within the REVOCS database. Life Fiber wombs and direct parentage from the Primordial Life Fiber. The official story is that she's the daughter of Ragyo's fourth cousin twice removed, who was given to Ragyo's care after her parents died in a terrible car accident. A neat little concoction, but to the girls she's simply the youngest sister, and that way she'll remain. She's not human, not in the way Ryuko is. They'd learned that from the start, when she'd forgone the nanny's milk in favour of taking a bite out of the breast. He prays that she'll find her way to common decency and the best of humanity, and apologises that he shan't be about to read her stories any more._

_One of them shifts. Which one doesn't matter; it's the firing pistol that sets him racing down the stairs, cursing his sentimentality. Soroi sees him off at the door with a stiff handshake and a promise to watch over them in his absence._

_Soichiro Kiryuin enters his car, and prepares himself to die._

* * *

_His daughter is... fifteen? Sixteen? He's been losing track of time recently, and his guesses are not helped by that daft Lolita outfit she's got on. He used to have Kinue to keep him on track, relaying messages from the council and keeping the calendar as easily as she wove Life Fibers. Poor sweet Kinue, taken before her time. Tsumugu hasn't been the same since, decrying the science teams and throwing his lot in with the front line missionaries. The man seems to wear less every time he sees him._

_Either way, Nui is trying to kill him. Ragyo's grand plan for the second Human-Fiber hybrid seems to have been nothing more than to dress her up as an assassin for hire. So much potential, wasted raising a common thug disguised in silk and lace. Rumours say that a girl matching her description has been tearing up the USA recently, showing up at clothing companies just before they conveniently decide to sell up to REVOCS. Ragyo's plan to unleash the COVERS and swallow up the world is likely nearing its endgame, and so he's next on the chopping block. Cut the head off the snake, and watch the body die. He's not entirely sure that would work out for her. So many Nudists are chomping at the bit to take humanity back these days; his martyrdom could have been the catalyst for them to go loud and public._

_But it's not his body that Nui finds slumped over at his desk, but a double. Some unfortunate homeless man, frozen to death on Tokyo's streets. Shipped to him when they caught wind that REVOCS' giggling murderer might be heading his way, stuffed into a lab coat and an eyepatch. For all intents and purposes, it will seem as though a frantic old man worked himself to death, scraps of Kamui blueprints still clutched within his desperate hands._

_Nui turns the body over, and the string is pulled. As she checks for a pulse and gouges a chunk of flesh out of the face to really, really make sure he's dead, the fire is already rising._

_The little girl he used to read bedtime stories to and play airplane with looks up just in time for the backdraft to sweep her clean off her feet and out the window. Even knowing what she's made of and what she's here for, he can't help but wince as the white-hot flames engulf her. Life Fibers are, at the end of the day, string. Burn them strongly enough and they wither away. But Nui's made of stronger stuff it seems, hopping to her feet and pouting as she pats out a lick of flame that's taken root in one of those big pigtails. She raises her hand, and the rapier at her side goes flying off. He watches it flit from from to room on the CCTV, shredding walls and furniture, carving the cadaver to pieces. By the time it's done, the fire is running low on things to consume, but at least she's pleased with herself, bouncing away with 'his' chunk of flesh packed away into a little tupperware container._

_No sense in coming out while the inferno still rages and she's still about. He decides to wait for a day, just to properly cover his tracks. He arranges some old rags into a comfortable divot, and drifts off dreaming of a world in which he'd done better by her._

* * *

_His daughter is eighteen, and scowls at him as though he were the one selling out humanity to a race of threadbare parasites. Satsuki stands before the Nudist Council, two other youngsters flanking either side. How young the man might be is up for debate; the armoured figure twice as tall as full grown men. The girl on her other side is far more interesting; yet another runaway business scion, one that's caused great hurt for Jakuzure Transporting and allowed Nudist Beach to make great gains undermining her father, lost in his grief._

_Satsuki's demands are simple: she wants the Rending Scissors. Some young pup squealed their existence to her, and she rates the fighting abilities of Nudist Beach below par. She's been tearing up REVOCS facilities up and down the country, while they struggle to keep Ragyo's influence out of Osaka, she argues. She's prideful, and with good reason, but it's not winning her any friends on the council. Tsumugu looks about ready to leap from his chair and take her head. But enough of Nudist Beach's secrets have leaked without him detailing the exact nature of their operations, and so their defence is a pale and flimsy thing to her, the scowl ever-deepening._

_She's the spitting image of her mother when she gets angry. The Ragyo he knew and courted, not the monster who would dispose of new-borns for failing her. Satsuki looks terribly tired though, and if not for his fellows he would drop the pretenses and question her about the last thirteen years. How her mother has treated her, how her sisters are faring – surely there must be more to Ryuko than the mad tyrant running around her personal blood-soaked kingdom?_

_Gods above, just allow him to ask if she's found any measure of happiness in her life, or if she's been a scowling revolutionary since the tender age of five._

_But he has his men to consider, and the mood is swiftly turning dark. The idea of a renegade Kiryuin was hardly accepted to begin with, and all this meeting has done has convinced them further that the entire cursed clan is a pack of haughty anti-humanists. Let this be a learning moment for both sides then. He'll refuse Satsuki, but pitch ideas of co-operation. She is alone and proud, and she needs to learn that she doesn't have to be so icily self-sufficient anymore. He cannot help her as her father, but he can at least undo some of the damage likely caused by his passing. In time, the Nudists will see that she's the lone white sheep in the blackened flock, and the idea of handing her the Rending Scissors will become second-nature._

_Hopefully the other black project will have come to fruition by then as well. The war effort hinges on it._

_"Satsuki Kiryuin. If we were to hand over the Rending Scissors, what would be your course of action afterwards?"_

_"My intentions are the same with or without the scissors. I will go to Honnouji Academy and remove my sister from the throne. I recognise that Nudist Beach has outdone me in one regard; your propensity for creating Anti-Fiber weaponry is second to done. If what your man said is true, even her incredible healing powers would falter before them."_

_"And why should we hand them off to you, when we could use them to arm an assassin of our own?"_

_"If you had a man here who could stand up to Ryuko, you would have already sent him. That alone proves that all you are doing is sitting on a tool of REVOCS' destruction, worthless in the hands of anyone under your banner. The way things are going, those scissors will remain unused right up until Ragyo makes her move to end the world, gathering dust even as we are swallowed up."_

_"And so we should hand them off to the enemy instead?" Tsumugu snaps, upright in his chair. Satsuki glares back up at him._

_"You should make the best decision for humanity, instead of licking your wounded pride."_

_"A fine accusation, coming from you!" One of the generals pitches in._

_The room dissolves into thunder and fury. Nothing significant said, only raw emotion thrown back and forth. His cries for order are lost in the bedlam. It culminates with the Jakuzure girl snatching one of the more phallically designed weapons from the belt of the honour guard and waving it about, mocking its capabilities and accusing the old men on his council of compensating for something._

_The noise is broken with the crack of gunpowder, every head in the room turning to him. To the burning spot in his chest, aching dully from the impact of the rounded shell. But that's not the purpose of the Fiber Burner. The Life Fibers in his outfit ignite, the flames catching the cotton just as easily and consuming him entirely. His fellow councilmen scramble to their feet, throwing bottled water at him in vainglorious attempts to slow the blaze. Tsumugu launches from his chair, Tailor's Dagger clashing against Satsuki's katana as she shields her horrified handmaiden. She yells a retreat, alarms bursting into life and the room flashing red._

_What a lot of fuss over something he would have given her freely._

* * *

His daughter is eighteen, and still as proud and tired as the last time they saw each other. He runs down the Nudist Declaration as they make to her assigned cell. Her supposed treacheries of humanity and hatred for him in particular. How surprised the council will be when he stands in her defence during the trial. They have precious few victories against REVOCS as it is without executing the woman who can bring them more. She's showing it as much respect as he is, striding forward with a blank expression, the word flowing through one and ear and out the other.

Right until she misses the corner, and walks into the wall.

The Nudists don't move as she hits the floor, and he's just as surprised as they are. More so when she doesn't get up, her face dropping into shades of red and her breath growing ragged. It takes him a second, but then it dawns. Aikuro's report. Kamui wounds and sewer trips on top of a furious day of fighting. He drops to his knees, checks her forehead. She's burning up under his hand, and yet cannot stop scowling, a half-muttered threat tumbling out her mouth, followed by a little protest of "Soroi, I'm fine, I'm fine" as her eyes glaze over.

"Change of plans. We take her to the infirmary."

"But sir, the council…"

"The council cannot hold their kangaroo court if the defendant is dying, now can they? Infirmary, now!"

Rifles are packed away, Satsuki carried off. He follows them there, already calling Aikuro in again. The man's a slippery devil, dressed in uniform and guarding an empty bed by the time they arrive. The other men are summarily excused, and they go slinking off to tattle on him to his fellow councilmen.

A quick examination of Satsuki confirms his suspicions. Infected wounds and Life Fiber exhaustion. It's a damned miracle she survived in the first place. A feral Kamui, assembled out of his early designs, back when he'd been working on the idea of misaligning the threads to weaken the sapience of the outfit. What one got instead was a dysmorphic creature that would devour itself through the wearer, so desperate would it be to die. She'd sown it together in his basement, with a bunch of scrap cloth and half-completed blueprints. It should have eaten her the moment she'd put it on, but she'd worn it throughout a full day of fighting, contested her own hybrid sister and survived Nui's mayhem afterwards.

He finishes the initial batch of antibiotics and renewed bandages, and marvels at the insanity of his eldest, the unfavoured sole human of Ragyo's daughters. How strong her sheer willpower, to force the mad beast to heel, even for such a short time? What could have driven her into such a corner? How little did she concern her own well-being, do so without hesitation? Or was her pride so great that she simply didn't think the side-effects would apply to her?

He brings his hands to his crooked nose and breathes out slowly, tucking away his fatherly concerns and returning to Isshin Matoi's unenvied shoes just in time for the infirmary phone to ring. Aikuro collects it, nodding through the conversation in record time.

"Well, what is it?"

"Takarada's asking for Nudist support down at the docks. A tugboat's come in with Mako Mankanshoku and Nonon Jakuzure on board, along with some other Honnouji refugees. Women and children mostly. Jakuzure's out like a light, but Mankanshoku's making a fuss about wanting to see Nudist Beach and… Ryuko-chan."

Aikuro is a man who can say absurd things without blinking. It's the reason he's been making for such good conscription numbers even during his time undercover. Yet the cutesy honorific applied to the tyrant of Honnouji seems to stumble even him.

"I see. Phone through to Kaneko, have his squad bring them here. Jakuzure to the infirmary, Mankanshoku to a cell. If they can relieve her of her uniform, great, if not, have his squad posted outside her cell and we'll send a second squad in afterwards."

"Which leaves me on Satsuki duty."

"Apologies Aikuro. I know it's been a long day."

"Perish the thought doctor. If you didn't suggest it, I would have offered. Far too many reckless men around these parts, ready to do something outrageous to a young lady. I'll lock the doors after you leave."

"I'll send Marikawa down to perform additional medical support. The woman's a ditz, but there isn't a spiteful bone in her body. If I can't trust that, then I might as well re-equip the whole organisation in black belt straps and hand every man a personalised grenade. Call me if the situation changes drastically."

"Aye-aye sir."

He storms to his feet and makes for the main assembly chambers. Ryuko's prison is on the way, and now he has two daughters to protect, and so a sooner than average detour is required. It would have been nice if he could blame his men for jumping the gun so fast and frequently. Sit them all down and bluster at them in his old man voice about how he thought he had raised an army, not a mob. But how can he, when one of these two girls has a kill count in the thousands, and the other an accessory to an attempt on his life? What reason do they have to slow down and listen, when they are fighting for the survival of the species as they know it?

There had been a time… hell, there was still a time, when he had wished to augment humanity with the Life Fibers. Vicious parasites they might be, the applications of them as a construction material went beyond even the most durable alloys the human race had cooked up. Whisper it, but even now, one of Ragyo's pitches sticks with him, the promise of the combination of man and cloth. Ryuko was proof of it. Strength, speed and healing, and that was before she donned a Kamui.

A shame then, that such combination required one to step over the deepest line in the sand. Performing the act upon his own daughter had broken and reforged him over a single evening. How could he ask the same of any other, weaker-willed parent? Not to mention the possible side-effects on the genes of the implanted, which had other implications further down the road, as well as potential mental contamination from the bestial mindset of the threads. Three for three on psychopaths, but was that their nature or just Ragyo's toxic influence?

If Tsumugu was here, he'd probably chip in with "who cares, just kill the bastards." Every day that mindset became clearer and easier to understand, which is why the Naked Nudists had gone from a pocket of extremists to near forty percent of the force, and that was just the ones who spoke their allegiances out loud.

The men watching Ryuko were, for the time being, maintaining cool heads. Of course, he had stressed to them that if the cooling system broke, she'd be back at full power in no time. Not that he had any idea if that were the case, but putting the fear of God into them was a quick and easy way to make sure that they didn't try any funny business. At least this daughter's reputation could be used to shield her.

"Status report on Junketsu."

"Twenty percent removed so far. There was a slight worry, but we think it's nothing."

"Which would be?"

The project lead nods to the monitor that showed the inside of Ryuko's frosted prison. It is only thanks to Satsuki disrupting Junketsu's internal stitching that it is possible to remove him with nothing more than cutting lasers and needles, white sheets peeling off of Ryuko's form. They're going to make an attempt to avoid slicing her underwear with him, but blushes will be spared if there is no other choice. But that is not what the project lead is pointing to.

Ryuko's face, once stuck in reassured joy, is fixed in a demonic snarl despite her muscles having been robbed of all ability to move.

"I see. How long ago was this?"

"Just after you left to meet Satsuki, sir."

The possibilities run through his mind. Something to run in the background while he goes politicking.

"Any other movements?"

"None that we've noticed."

"Keep me on speed-dial. I'm about to consult the council, but I can step away if needed."

"Yessir."

He leaves Ryuko behind, and heads for the council chambers. They're already good and angry from the sounds of it. Good. He has a lot to get off his chest. Maybe slapping them down will impress upon everyone else that he's the leader for a reason.

There was nothing he could have done for his daughters as Soichiro Kiryuin. But Isshin Matoi will not be cowed into letting the Kiryuin children hang for their mother's crimes.


	17. Yours Is No Disgrace

Chapter 17: Yours Is No Disgrace 

_"That concludes today's meeting. Enjoy your weekends, cause it's the Naturals Elections from Monday. Ogure, I better see you out there at some point, instead of fucking off to your NEET cave like you usually do."_

_"As you wish ma'am."_

_"Oh, and Mankanshoku, stay behind a minute. I want to talk to you about something."_

_"Yes ma'am!"_

_The other council members took their belongings and headed out, followed by the Club Presidents. A couple of eyes fell upon her as they went. Some sympathetic, some less so. It wasn't exactly a secret that she wasn't much liked thanks to all her absences in the previous elections, not to mention the rise of her Safe Zone project. She'd spent the majority of this meeting defending herself from a number of angry presidents, furious at what they perceived to be a disgrace to the good name of Honnouji. Ryuko's execution of the subject had been blunt and to-the-point; if they didn't like it, they should tear it down themselves. She'd looked at Mako with something almost like a look of pride when she'd said it, and Mako had no idea if it was because they had a weird, sort-of friendship now or because she was simply pleased that she'd set up another fight for Mako to knock heads together along with everyone else._

_Nevertheless, she found herself alone before the long desk, Ryuko lounging in the tall-backed chair sat in the centre. She always held these meetings at the end of the day, so the shadows from the setting sun would cast her in darkness and make Junketsu's eyes pop out, a subtle reminder to everyone in the room of who the queen was and what she could do. So supposed Uzu anyway. Houka was of the opinion that she was just doing it to be edgy. Either way, neither was the case today, Ryuko shooting the closing door a withering scowl that relaxed the moment it closed. She dragged her chair forward a slight, sitting up uncharacteristically straight with fingers resting together._

_"So… Mako." She started, working over the given name. "You've been adjusting remarkably well the past few months, given how you started."_

_"Thank you, Lady Ryuko."_

_That was their new thing. Mako had suggested that they move to a first-name basis since they'd been getting on decently well ever since she took to her council duties properly. Ryuko had agreed, but wanted it to be a behind-doors thing, lest she be accused of favouritism. If Mako had a tail, it would have been wagging ten to the dozen right now, like Guts' whenever he saw a full plate or a pretty woman. Months of asking questions about her lady's life and her favourite things after meetings, greeting her and seeing her off as loudly and proudly as she could, and trading croquettes for whatever fancy foods Soroi had prepared was all paying off. Lady Ryuko still loved a fight more than anything and swore like a sailor, but she genuinely seemed to smile more these days, with warmth instead of anger._

_Lady Ryuko nodded once, flexing her steepled fingers in and out._

_"Look, I don't know how to do this gently, so I'm just going to go for it, okay?"_

_"I… okay?"_

_"It's about the Safe Zone."_

_A chill ran down her spine, her legs locking together. When she'd first pitched the idea of a space for people who might not want to take part in the Naturals Elections and give the few remaining No-Stars a new place to live, she'd been expecting a lot of screaming and opposition. Instead, Ryuko had shrugged it through with a resounding 'meh', with the observation that it was Mako's money to waste, not hers. And while her lady was getting better, a small part of Mako lived in fear that one day she'd turn up at the door with matches in hand. She'd just spoken in its defence, sort-of, but the fear was still there, wrapping around her throat with hellfire claws._

_"Wh-what about it, Lady Ryuko?"_

_"It comes to my attention that while I signed off on the place, I've never actually stepped inside to make sure it's up to code. You know, make sure you're not grinding up humans for meat or something."_

_She laughed at her own joke, petering out when she realised that Mako wasn't joining in. She cleared her throat, a touch of red in her cheeks._

_"Umm, not to be rude Lady Ryuko, but if you need the insurance paperwork, it's all in my office. I keep it tripled cause that way one copy can get eaten or lost or used as a placemat and you can still squeeze money out of the insurance company."_

_"Ah… well, it's not so much about the paperwork so much as… you know… getting eyes on the place myself. Maybe you can show me around and… you know?"_

_She was getting redder and redder, and Mako felt an equal rush of blood to the cheeks as her fear dropped away, taking the veil of confusion with it._

_"You mean… like a date?"_

_"A date? Well, if you insist!"_

_She laughed again, long and hard and more than a little forced._

_"If… if that's okay with you, that is."_

_Honestly, Mako wasn't sure if that was okay with her. There was a big alarm bell in the back of her head screaming about what happened last time Ryuko Kiryuin had tried to hit on her. But the woman in front of her wasn't some broken, soulless thing. She was blushing, tongue-tied and looking deeply ashamed in herself. No-one would have suspected that she was responsible for the deaths of thousands._

_Mako wasn't a smart girl. Every parent's consultation she had usually ended with phrases like 'must try harder', 'needs to get along better with the class' and 'at least she's pretty'. But she didn't have to be a genius to figure out the twisting sensation that worked through her, equal parts caution and intrigue. The idea of dating Ryuko Kiryuin was still just plain weird, and now it was for reasons she really couldn't get a handle on. Would it be disrespectful to the dead to go along with their killer? Shouldn't she at least try to avenge her former home and neighbours?_

_Under the layers of armour, under the snarling and swearing and love of fighting that frequently went too far, there was a girl that Mako did genuinely like. That noble, strong, charismatic girl who, when she broke the surface of the anger, could even engage with Maiko and Houka on pleasant terms, who turned away from defeated opponents with a smile, instead of stamping on their necks to finish the job. A girl who could smile with a mouth full of fangs and make it look charming as she gushed over simple No-Star style cooking. A girl who was clearly hurting on the inside and had been left hanging and how long had she been thinking about this again?_

_"You know what, it was a stupid idea, I'll let you go."_

_"No! No. Sorry, I didn't mean to say nothing, it's just that all the words were in my head and going around and around and around, but the answer is yes, I'd love to go out on a date with you! We don't have a lot in the Safe Zone, but I'll show you all of it, I promise! You absolutely won't be bored!"_

_Ryuko chuckled, just once._

_"Trust me Mako, I'm rarely bored with you around. So… is tomorrow good for you? Or are you going to need more time to whip your people into line or what?"_

_"I can do tomorrow! It won't involve actual whips, but I guess when I talk people tend to do what I want very quickly, so maybe metaphorical whips might be used, not that I'd ever whip anyone with my words or otherwise!"_

_"Well, ah… I guess I'm glad to hear that? Anyway, don't worry about picking me up or nothing, Junketsu and I'll just drop in around midday. You know, what with being able to fly and everything."_

_"Won't he feel like a third wheel? I'm pretty sure the number one rule of dates is that it's two people only. Sometimes four, if there's shenanigans afoot."_

_"He'll be fine. Where I go, he goes. If he makes you feel awkward, I'll have him go to sleep for a bit."_

_Junketsu's scarf jiggled, Ryuko punching it without breaking her smile or eye contact with Mako._

_"Well, if you're sure. I'll let everyone know you'll be visiting then!"_

_"Of course."_

_She shuffled some papers back and forth, pretended like there was anything of importance on them._

_"Right, well… I'll let you go. See you tomorrow Mako."_

_"See you tomorrow, Lady Ryuko."_

_She gathered her own materials and made for the exit. Winding through the student council chambers until she reached the long elevator down. Uzu Sanageyama was stood there, leaning against the window and looking upwards. He was about to open his mouth when a triumphant cry of "fuck yes!" echoed down, washing past them and carrying on down through Honno City. He smirked, and hit the calling button._

_"Good meeting, I take it?"_

_"Yeah, it was good. Lady Kiryuin and I have a date tomorrow."_

_He nodded, his smile going a little flat as they stepped inside and selected the ground floor._

_"Mankanshoku, be honest with me." He started as the doors closed. "You didn't say yes to her because you felt forced to, right? Cause if so, let me know, and I'll go have a word. Take some lumps in your place."_

_Honnouji glowed in radiant orange from the sunset, reflections off the Tokyo bay illuminating the city in brilliant shine. Mako breathed in, watching phantom flames rise up out of the warmth, silently raging over the empty timbers and forgotten walls of the former slums._

_"I don't know. I think I said yes because I didn't want to say no. And not because I thought if I said no that she'd go all crazy again. She almost turned me down before I could say no, and I'm pretty sure that's how you know that someone really, really likes you."_

_"If you love something, set it free, huh?"_

_They stood in silence for a while, the high walls around the school getting higher as they dropped to the ground floor._

_"What about you, Mankanshoku? Do you feel the same way?"_

_"I think… I want to find out. Is that wrong?"_

_"Nah. Just makes you human. You're not the first good person to fall in with someone who's done awful things."_

_The elevator touched down, the doors opening up into an empty hall. The students of Honnouji were escaping early, readying themselves for the battles to come. Only the disciplinary squads remained, vaingloriously guarding the safest building in Honnouji. Uzu stepped out first._

_"Keep doing what you're doing Mankanshoku. It's a damn slight better than the rest of us can do."_

* * *

They were met at the dock by a number of armed men and women. Some dressed in military gear, some wearing nothing but straps and guns, but all of them looking very displeased. Mako kept her hands up, hoping to look friendly.

"Hi there. Ah, we're from Honnouji. We called ahead?"

"We know exactly who you are, Mako Mankanshoku."

"Great! That means you've got space for everyone, right?"

They'd packed non-students onto the tugboat until it had started groaning under the weight. Those too young or old to fight mostly; the No-Stars students had insisted that they could fend for themselves against Nui, forming human walls five men deep while their families got on board. After the argument between Nonon and Ira about staying behind to fight, Mako hadn't really had the heart to refuse their bravery.

"You'll all be brought in for processing and questioning. As for you, you're to be taken into custody. The charges are aiding and abetting the Kiryuin regime. I'm sure I don't' have to read off the full list of what that entails."

She went to reply, only to be drowned out in an explosion of protest behind her, old dears and young mothers shouting the man down, protective hands grabbing onto her shoulders.

"That's poppycock!"

"Lady Mankanshoku is a saint!"

"Shame on you!"

"Wait!"

She calmed them down with open hands, gently peeling them away and stepping up to the dock. Rifles and bigger guns followed her up, until she stood chest-to-chest with the leader, already lowing himself into a battle stance.

"Tell me where Ryuko is and I'll come along."

"We have no intention of letting you near your master."

"Girlfriend!" She snapped, poking him in the chest. "Ryuko is my girlfriend, and I want to see her! I know my rights, and hers! One phone call and visiting hours! I don't need to call anyone, but I want to have a visitor, and nothing says that visitor can't be another prisoner!"

The man floundered, a couple of women in crowd getting a touch of pink as she switched honorifics.

"That is not how it works, and even if it was, I'm not letting you see that monster!"

"Then I want a lawyer, so he can tell you to let me see her!"

"We don't have lawyers!"

"Then how are you going to tell us we're guilty? You can't send people to prison without a big argument beforehand, and I hope you don't want to make that argument this one, because I've got more people than you do, so we can argue louder!"

"I… you… Wait here a minute!"

He fell back, a finger in his ear and talking to someone. A few minutes later, he came back, looking most annoyed.

"Fine, you get to see her. But the uniform comes off first."

Another squawk of disrespect from those on the boat, voicing their opposition to her losing her clothes.

"I'm afraid I can't do that."

"Fantastic, then we get to do this the hard way."

"Because I don't have a change of clothes."

He paused mid dagger-draw, looking at her in confusion.

"I can't go around in my underwear, now can I? Someone might mistake me for one of you guys, and that'd just get super confusing. You might try and arrest the wrong person."

"Lady Mankanshoku!"

She turned back to the boat, the grandmothers of Honnouji's Safe Zone already working ten to the dozen with the furious clack of knitting needles and light glinting off their glasses confidently. She bounded back, vanishing below deck and coming out seconds later in a navy-blue woollen dress, her uniform tucked underarm.

"Right, let's get this show on the road!"

The lead Nudist grumbled, but split his men up regardless, half of them staying behind to take care of the refugees and the other half escorting her towards a warehouse. A great metal panel sat there, surrounded by Takarada merchandise. Opening it up led downwards, another group of Nudists awaiting at the foot of the stairs. Mako strode down without so much as a blink, fluorescent lights replacing the evening sun.

"Hang on Ryuko. I'm-a-coming."

* * *

The door swung open gently, welcoming her into a world of white. She left her shoes in the entryway and took up some personalised slippers, padding through the estate with a strange sort of tiredness soaking in with every step.

Well, it had been an awfully long day, after all. Long enough to tucker even her out, full of emotional body blows. Still, it was good to come back to her home away from home, even if the homeliest element wasn't here. Evidence of Ryuko remained all around; the faint smell of her escaping the cracks in the walls, the warmth of shed Life Fibers, hanging in the air. Yet the purity of her had been sullied. Greasy food, cheap shampoo, and haphazard stacks of DVDs and video games strewn about the place. That deep, irremovable stain of humanity, so blindly reckless and incomprehensible.

Nui clicked her tongue as she roamed from room to room, making her way to the block of light escaping the open kitchen door. Some vagabond looking to take advantage of Ryuko's disappearance, no doubt. One more kill to see out the day, and then she'd take a nice long nap.

She walked in to find her other target finishing his work. A glass of grape juice and a salmon dinner set upon the table, simmering away in white wine sauce.

"Soroi! So this is where you snuck off to!"

"My apologises for leaving you in the lurch Lady Nui. There was nothing I could do for Lady Ryuko, but I at least wanted to make sure you had an adequate welcome."

"More than adequate, I should say."

She floated around the table and embraced him quickly. Technically, being physically affectionate to the hired help was one of the things a lady was never ever supposed to do, but what mother didn't know wouldn't hurt her in this situation. Besides, it had been ever so long since she'd seen him last. Soft leathered hands rested upon her hair, made supple from years of housework and ever so warm upon her head. She broke away, gracing him with a smile before making her way to the prepared seat.

While she normally took her meals in a single swallow when on the job, there was much he needed to be filled in on, and so she worked through it slowly, updating him one everything she'd learned that day between bites and sharing the hilarious story about how Maiko Ogure thought herself real royalty. By the time she got the end she found herself quite tired, smothering a yawn in the proper dainty fashion.

"The guest bed has already been made up for you Lady Nui. Why don't you retire for the evening? I'll take care of things here."

"Gonna sleep in Ryuko's bed." She mumbled, rubbing an eye.

"Ah. I have made it up, but you might find some of Ms Mankanshoku's things in the room. I hope that shan't be a bother."

"Yes, I've been meaning to ask about that. Why is she staying here?"

"She's been having some troubles with her family. Lady Ryuko invited her to stay here for the time being, and they're quite enjoying rooming together."

"But why though?"

"I'm afraid you'll have to ask Lady Ryuko for the finer details. I was merely asked to serve a guest."

She huffed, but bid him a good evening regardless, drifting towards the master bedroom. As promised, the sanctuary of white had been spoiled here as well, odd items of make-up and skin care dotting the bureaus. A bunny mug in the bathroom with matching toothbrush, and half the closet filled with outfits Nui wouldn't have been caught dead in.

She worked it over as she untied her hair, letting the great mane fall around her in fluffy paradise. Her dress was shed away and neatly folded over a chair, Nui's naked glory unseen by any heretic eyes as she folded into the covers, resting her head on the left side of the bed, where Ryuko's scent was strongest.

This was more than just roommates. If Ryuko were simply extending pity, she would have dumped the girl in the guest room and thought nothing more of it. But Mako Mankanshoku had wormed her into this place, infecting it with the stink of humanity. Even in this hallowed place of rest, the smell twisted into Ryuko's divinity, a soft edge distracting her thoughts no matter how far she pressed into the pillow. A couple of explanations came to mind, and Nui hated each and every one of them. Just another reason to rescue her soul sister. She would save Ryuko from the naked hands that dared drag her down, bring her back to this room and correct the mistakes that stained the house, until it was nothing but her and Ryuko once more, their fibers all entwined in love.

Sleep came quickly, but her dreams were haunted by a sinful, oily creature that hung upon her back and whispered foulness in her ear.

* * *

She shot awake, as she always did. Suddenly thrust into the world, crawling with a sensation of danger. An unfamiliar ceiling hung above her head, flat grey concrete framed with metal bars and curtains at the edge of her vision. A hospital. Strange place for the Nudists to put her, but no matter. She would take advantage of their softness and… Ryuko. She was supposed to have been visiting Ryuko.

She eased herself up little by little, looking to take a measure of the guards in the room. Her right hand was strapped to the bed, but the medical bond would be easy enough to break. Worst case scenario, the loop was just loose enough that she might dislocate her wrist and slip it free. So that just left how many Nudists she would have to step over to get to Ryuko. One by the door, Aikuro Mikisugi, devoid of any clothing but his underwear but cheerfully chatting away to someone. Bringing herself up a notch further brought his conversation partner into view. Nonon sat upon another bed, her pink hair a sharp shock against the pale of her new hospital gown. One arm hung to her chest, lightly tied there and contained under a thin veil of bandages. She caught Satsuki moving, throwing herself over the side of the bed and darting to her side, leaving a blinking Aikuro to catch up.

"Easy Satsuki, easy."

"Nonon. I see you made it here in one piece as well."

"More or less." She jostled her broken arm. "I've got Toad and Little Miss Saviour Complex to thank for that, otherwise Nui would have had all of us."

She cast a look about the room. No large figures to be seen.

"I assume we've been gender segregated then?"

Nonon hissed a breath in through her teeth.

"Oh."

"You know what he's like. A whole bunch of innocent people, tyrannised by REVOCS' worst. He was never going to slip out the back with the rest of us. I tried to stop him, but he went out to fight Nui without even blinking. Damned idiot."

"Foolish perhaps, but very brave of him." Aikuro swept in, sitting on the right-hand rail. "Probably saved the lives of everyone there. Last we heard of him; Nui was dragging him back up into Honnouji Academy. I'd like to be able to tell you more, but unfortunately Ms Ogure decided to warm up to her new boss by handing over Nudist pockets within the city. We didn't give her every location in our information exchanges, but it did lead to a more hurried exit than we would have liked."

"The detention cells then. Not the ideal situation, but workable."

She closed off the rest of her thoughts on the matter, dividing her attention to the two fronts before her. Ryuko, currently in unknown status, but within her grasp. Ira, trapped within Honnouji, halfway across the country. In theory, she could make her way back to Honnouji, break into the cells and rescue him. There would be no need to make such a show of it this time; Nui would likely be extending her influence outwards, looking for Ryuko. A simple covert mission; in and out before the dawn. But to do so would leave Ryuko without allies to speak on her behalf. Seven hours back and forth across Japan was more than enough time to kill her with the Rending Scissors, if an execution had not already been carried out. She had Doctor Matoi's word on the matter, but if it was broken this base would not survive the day, allies of convenience or not.

"And Ryuko?" She challenged, glaring Aikuro down. He raised his hands placatingly, and scurried across the room, coming back with Nonon's tablet. A couple of flicks, and a camera feed was displayed for her.

The same tall tube that she'd seen last, turquoise-blue and surrounded by a mass of computers and machinery. Another flick brought them inside. Her sister, naked as the day as she'd been born and thrashing furiously against her restraints. Her arms and legs were locked into fat cylinders built into the sides of the tube, and the colour had returned to her. A soundless scream, and her muscles bulged, veins popping as she heaved forwards. But the prison held, Ryuko going limp with heavy breaths. For a time, at least. It wasn't long before she was fighting again.

"As much fire and fury as you'd expect from her. Doctor Matoi reckons that without Junketsu joined to her fibers, there's enough human there to fight off the cooling coagulant. Luckily, he had these prepared, or she might have run merry about the whole base."

She nodded stiffly.

"Very well. Please put a message through to him that I'm ready to see her, and apologise for my lapse in health."

"Lapse in health? That's what we're calling it now?"

Nonon had a face like thunder. Aikuro shot a look between them and duly retreated, the door to the medical centre closing with a quiet click. Satsuki sat herself up fully, braced herself against the pillows.

"Is there something you want to say Nonon?"

"Got a couple things, yeah. Let's start with getting you on the same page, shall we? What the hell do you think you're in here for to begin with?"

She didn't have to go far to get the answer to that one. Peeling open the hospital gown she now wore found fresh bandages winding all the way down. The wounds from Kamui Fukusei no longer ached in the same way they had, but she was made unpleasantly aware of a faint itching all over.

"A Kamui, Satsuki? You went and made a Kamui? How many times did you tell me how dangerous Life Fibers are, and you go ahead and slap on a whole outfit made out of them? With what, maybe a day's worth of sewing expertise? And then, because apparently getting yourself half eaten isn't enough, you decide to go running about a bunch of sewers, declining to get yourself to safety and getting infected in process! But hey, that's not enough for you! Let's just try walking off all that damage, not telling anyone about it and heading straight into Nudist territory! You know, because we left here on such good terms last time! So yeah, let's just pass out surrounded by people who hate you!"

She breathed out, pinching the bridge of her nose.

"Just… please tell me you had a plan."

"Stop Nui from finding the Nudists. Save myself from Nui. Get to Ryuko. I was mostly improvising."

A snort of bitter laughter.

"Really? Could have fooled me."

"It was what was necessary."

"It was necessary for the girl who'd just had the crap kicked out of her to fight her other superpowered sister?"

"No-one else could have faced her and lived."

"And you would have? Half beaten, naked and without your swords? You would have been able to take Nui?"

"Pray tell Nonon, what was my other choice? Allow the copies to run about freely, find the point of exit and pass on that information to Nui, letting her know that Ryuko was out of Honnouji? It was a necessary holding action. It brought us time, time I am wasting justifying myself right now."

Nonon bunched up her fists, paced a second, all puffed up like a bullfrog. She bounced back and forth a couple of times, until the angry energy burned out and she came to a crash at the foot of the bed.

"You couldn't have had a Nudist do it instead? Or Inumuta?"

"As if either would have listened to me. And even if they had, I would not push the unfortunate task of having to face Nui upon them."

A sigh from behind the board. Nonon resurfaced, a sad smile pushing the anger away. The indignant burn in her chest settled at the sight of it.

"My apologises Nonon. I did not mean to make you worry."

"You… I don't know what to do with you sometimes Satsuki. You're always the first one in and the last one out. And I get it. You're strong. Stupid strong. Stronger than the rest of us combined. But you've gotta get out of this idea that you've got to do everything yourself. I'm still not sure how the Toad convinced you to let him go on the scouting mission, and I was there for the conversation. And after what happened last time we were here I just… I just want you to keep yourself safe as well. I want to keep you safe."

"Nonon, I told you it wasn't your fault."

"Nice try, but I'm the one that grabbed that stupid gun. I'm the one who accidently shot Doctor Matoi, and I'm the one you got knocked out protecting. So yeah, that's all on me, and I'll tell them as such if they want to throw you under the bus again."

"They do. There's a Nudist Declaration detailing my crimes."

"Aww, how cute. They wrote up a declaration. What's item number one; she keeps making us all look bad?"

"Something to that effect."

Nonon snorted with laughter. It prickled up to the corner of her mouth, drawing a smile from her in turn. It faded quickly, as she was reminded of her responsibilities.

"Nonon, it does have to be me. If even I could not defeat Ryuko, what chance would anyone else have? I cannot in good conscience let other people die at the foot of my family in my place."

"I know. But can you at least let the rest of us handle everything else? If you can trust Toad to go into Honnouji alone, you can trust me to be last out the door on the way out from a REVOCS lab every once in a while. And maybe get someone to back you up next time you have a deathmatch against a family member."

"In my defence, Ira was with me for a time, right up until Ryuko saw fit to remove him. I suspect Nui and Ragyo will also do their best to fight me alone. But… I will try. I promise."

"Honestly, I'm kind of shocked you let the Nudists have Ryuko to this extent."

"Doctor Matoi's pitch was very reasonable, and the equipment was quite sound. And like I said, my options were limited to improvisation and gambles. The fact that we shot the man and he continues to want amicable relations had to be enough."

"So, I'm guessing the main plan remains the same?"

"Indeed. Talk to Ryuko, settle the differences between us. If not, figure out where exactly the division in her personality took place, and work from there to expose Ragyo's lies."

"Hmm. Well, we do have an ace in the hole, if you're interested. It's been a couple of days, yet Saviour Complex has already wormed her way into the Nudist's hearts, and keeps getting into Ryuko's chamber to talk to her. So the groundwork's there for letting us get some free reign of the place."

"It's been a couple of days?"

Nonon sighed.

"And we almost had a good thing going there. Yeah, it's been two days. They kept you in medical comas for the skin grafts."

The plastic bond about her wrist snapped clean. The rail slammed down, and she swung out of bed, steadying herself as her body protested the sudden movement, her landing all shaky and awkward.

"Satsuki, what did we just talk about?"

"Nonon, I don't have time to be waiting and healing and letting someone else take charge. Nui could be upon us any day; I need as much time with Ryuko as I can get, and this is without taking Ira's situation into account. I am trying very hard not to take Ira's situation into account."

"God damnit, why do you have to be so reasonable when you're being unreasonable? Fine, but you're taking my shoulder."

"Your terms are acceptable."

"And no short jokes."

"I wouldn't dream of it. Will you able to support me with your arm the way it is?"

"I'd support you even if it was torn off. But I'll be fine. The stripper stuck me with a bunch of needles, said that it'll accelerate the healing. Gotta admit, the Nudists seem to know what they're doing for once. Feels better already, and I don't need a cast anymore."

As expected, it was a bit of a way down to lean on her, their progress made in slights and false starts until they matched strides. They'd barely made it to the door when it was thrown open, Aikuro returning with a smile.

"Oh good, you've kissed and made up. It's such a shame when young ladies fight. You're not in too much pain, I should hope?"

"Not enough to be swayed."

"Satsuki…"

"I will endure it."

Coward that she was, she didn't dare look at Nonon with that declaration. She already knew the glare she had earned from her.

"Fine, but if you so much as wince I'm turning us right back around and dumping you back into that bed."

"Well, you've got the all-clear from the doctor, so shall we get a move on?"

Nonon shifted under her to reenforce her support, and the motely crew set off. Two teenaged girls in hospital gowns trailing behind a man wearing nothing but a doctor's coat and a speedo. All three of them caught their fair share of glares as they made their way through the corridors, hateful ones pitched at her and disapproving ones shot at Aikuro. He saw them off with cheerful smiles and small talk, sending freshly embarrassed soldiers scurrying away, bludgeoned with charm.

Satsuki paid them no mind. If their resolve to hate him could be broken with nothing more than pretty words, then it simply proved the depths of their incompetence. She let the little people fade away, pushing through the cocktail of anaesthesia that still simmered in the back of her mind, reaching through its siren call to sleep and summoning the words she'd been sitting on for years.

* * *

_"Lady Ryuko, there's someone at the door for you."_

_Ryuko frowned, retrieving herself from the large leather chair she'd been settled in for the evening. If Soroi needed her to answer the door personally, it must have been important. She hadn't greeted anyone since…_

_She stuffed the memory away, wincing in shame at her own weakness. That rejection didn't matter anymore. She and Mako were on good terms now, very good terms if she did say so herself._

_It was Mako she found shivering in the entryway, dressed in an evening shirt and skirt and rubbing herself down with a towel. She shot a look to Soroi, questioning. He merely cleared his throat, causing Mako to snap to attention, droplets spraying the walls in her surprise. She looked like she'd fallen in a river, unsurprising given that it was raining like nothing Ryuko had ever seen outside. Had she walked all the way from Honnouji?_

_"Ah, Lady Kiryu- "_

_"You can call me Ryuko. It's just me and Soroi here. What are you doing here?"_

_"I… ah… had a bit of a fight with my family. Didn't really know where else to go."_

_She looked up, face pinched and nervous._

_"Could I stay here for the night?"_

_She found herself ready to nod, but caught herself before she could confirm._

_"If you stay… I can't promise what happened last time might not happen again."_

_She immediately bit her tongue, wondering where that came from. A glance at the white print under Mako's casual clothes, fabric soaked through to the skin gave her an answer. She did her best to push down the blush upon her cheeks, and definitely refused to look at Soroi. Mako disappeared under the towel._

_"Can I take a bath first?"_

_"Ye-yeah. It's already warm. Soroi, show her the way, I'll set up the guest bedroom."_

_"Lady Ryuko…"_

_"Already doing it!"_

_She ran from the conversation, not looking back._

_In the end, it was Mako who came crawling into her bed, whimpering and afraid to be alone. Which rather killed the desire to bury her face into her cleavage, replaced with simple cuddling and stroking as Mako cried. For some reason, watching her weep set a great twisting pain in her own chest, demanding release in the usual manner._

_"If it helps," she offered, not knowing if Mako could hear her through her tears, "I know what it's like to have family turn on you. So, if you want, I can go take care of them for you."_

_Mako's head shook back and forth, Ryuko tensing as the motion knocked her breasts._

_"No, they can have the house. I don't care about it. Too many rooms anyway."_

_"Then… do you want to live here instead?"_

_She was already grimacing at her own unapologetic desperation to keep the girl around, but then, a nod._

_She didn't get the full picture of what had happened and had no idea if she was helping at all, but in time the sniffles died down into snores, and Ryuko did her best to make her comfortable, watching over her until sleep claimed her as well. And that, in its own way, was just as good as connecting._

* * *

"Hey Ryuko."

A double-take from the men by the door, and Ryuko allowed herself a rare snicker at the confusion of the Nudists as she was pulled from her memories. Not that she had any idea of how Mako had snuck in again, but as she was Ryuko's sole source of amusement in the freezing hellhole the naked apes had stuffed her into, she wasn't about to ask Mako how she was doing it. The girl just did inexplicable things sometimes, like kicking a perfect Life Fiber Hybrid through several buildings without the aid of a Goku Uniform. Calling attention to it would likely prevent her from coming back, and Ryuko so badly wanted her to stay here with her.

Well, more than that she wanted to be out of the tube. She couldn't remember the last time she'd been so cold, so disconnected. It cut down to the core, her heart a furious blaze in her chest while the rest of her faded into pale. The cold had yet to corrupt her fully – they could pump chemicals under her skin but her purpose remained crystal clear, the roar of blood in her veins demanding an end to the Nudists. Revenge for Junketsu, and the slow indignity of the peeling they had suffered. His calls for help as they were ripped from one another still echoed in the back of her mind, and now she was left in this sickening twilight once more, unable to mourn for lack of knowing his fate.

It didn't make that much difference, she supposed. Whether he was dead or alive, the Nudists would die. His condition merely informed her as to how much time she would take enacting her revenge on each and every revoting rebel in this base.

She'd dreamt on the first night, when she'd regained full control over her facial features once more, allowing her to close her eyes and pass out. A foolish, naïve dream of Mako, Nui and Uzu smashing through the wall, throwing Nudists left and right until they came to her prison and shattered it. The dream had sadly ended before the point of her own revenge, but the thought had warmed her nonetheless. She would simply have to fill in the blanks her imagination couldn't with her own two hands.

Sadly, when Mako had appeared, bursting through the door and knocking the guards aside, she was missing the familiar white and gold of her station. She'd had to give it up to guarantee the safety of a bunch of No-Star families that had come with her and to see Ryuko in the first place. Alone and freezing, Ryuko had been unable to tame the lash of her own hurt, yelling at her about a great many things. Mostly why she hadn't just fought her way in, why she had come with No-Stars in the first place and why she wasn't immediately freeing her.

To her surprise, Mako had shouted back. They'd never had a full-blown argument before, and most of the details had been lost in the noise. But it had ended with Mako almost in tears, sniffing as she spun around and stormed out the way she'd come in. The moment the doors had slammed, she'd become painfully aware of the cold once more, forgotten at the sight of her. And more painful still, the knowledge that she'd pushed away the one person who might have been able to free her, leaving her with nothing but her own miserable howls to be released.

But now here she was, back again. There was a certain tiredness about her, and Ryuko couldn't help but look down to the bottom of the tube, unable to meet her eye.

"Hey."

A scrape of plastic on tiles. Mako had found a chair from somewhere, setting it before her prison and now looking up at her. With nowhere to run, Ryuko bit her tongue, and took the plunge.

"I'm surprised you came back."

"Of course I'd come back. You look lonely in there."

The heat rose in her chest again, a snide remark at the obvious statement. She shoved it down. If she kept biting at her like this, soon there'd be no more visits, other than the old bastard coming in to check the equipment and give her the side-eye. Fucking pervert. How he'd survived the assassination when Nui had brought a chunk of him home with her Ryuko had no idea, but she'd make sure to finish the job and present his corpse to mother.

"You could say that, yeah."

A small, awkward silence, scuffed with the shuffle of jostled chair legs.

"I'm sorry. About yesterday."

Ryuko tensed, her jaw locked. Some small, Satsuki-esque voice in the back of her mind reminded her that she had to apologise in return, but it was smothered into silence, the words trapped in her throat. Not that Mako seemed to mind, carrying on and starting to explain herself. Somewhat hesitant, but she tried to fill in the details that had gone missing the day before. Maiko's takeover, and how Nui had set about terrorising everyone she'd put eyes upon. Mako's fear for the people, and how she'd been flying by the seat of her skirt, completely lost without her.

"So, we got here to Osaka and- "

A crackle from above, heralding a sharp tone via an intercom.

"No details Ms Mankanshoku. If you continue to relay information, visitation rights will be suspended."

"Oh go fuck yourself!" Ryuko snapped, glaring into the camera lens within the tube.

"It's okay Ryuko, I'm the one who forgot."

"Yeah, well… I was going to tell him to fuck himself anyway. Now he gets a second reminder to do it."

She breathed out, finally finding the strength to look Mako in the eye.

"So, Osaka. Isn't that funny. I'm not supposed to be in Osaka. Wonder if they bothered informing Takarada of this because if not… well, he's got something else coming for him. Still, since they broke that restraining order, I guess I can take you out to that food mile place once I'm out of here."

A gleam entered Mako's eyes, a touch of saliva at the corner of her mouth.

"Oh gosh, I completely forgot about that! If they let me out, I'm going to grab you some takoyaki first chance I get!"

"Damn it Mako, now I'm hungry. All I've got going for me right now are these fucking tubes."

One in her lower back, one in her stomach, pumping some sort of slush for her nutritional needs. Probably tasted the same going in as it did coming out. Mako started checking the tube over, looking for a place to insert a box of the octopus balls. Not that Ryuko was going to be able to pick them up even if she did manage to slip them behind the glass. A sharp reprehend from the intercom, and she was back in the chair, hands in her lap. Ryuko gave the camera another glare, teeth bared in a bloody promise to the bastard.

The idea of apologising came to mind again, but some dogged part of her dug its heels in, refusing to admit that she was wrong for wanting to get out. Even if Mako was in the right. She'd definitely been a bit harsh. As much as she loved the girl, Mako wasn't the brightest, nor the calmest under pressure. And Nui would have been absolutely apocalyptic trying to get her back from the Nudists. Probably fired in all directions, caused a misunderstanding. Maiko's little power play would have been an extra layer of confusion. Small wonder that Mako had tried to get the people under her command out of town. The Nudists had simply taken advantage of that, and played it off as a hostage situation to boot. What else could a good person like Mako do, but submit to their demands?

She nodded to herself, watching as Mako's head tilted to the side in confusion. Cutest thing she'd ever seen. Okay, she could apologise like that. It made the sting of admitting she was wrong die a little more, even if that same part bulked at the idea of bowing her head to a human.

"Mako, I'm sorry. About yesterday, I mean. I shouldn't have shouted at you. It's good enough that you made it here at all."

Mako perked up a little, and the smile she received in return blew any thoughts about being the weaker person out of the water.

"It's okay Ryuko. I was tired as well. Friends again?"

"Girlfriends, surely?"

"Just because we're girlfriends, doesn't mean we don't have friendship on our side."

She was about to clear her throat and change the subject when the rattle of a bulkhead opening up tore through the chamber, the great door at the end of the room twisting open and swinging outward. The guards straightened up as three figures entered, Ryuko's blazing heart kicking into overdrive at the sight of the middle one. Satsuki, bandaged and robed in hospital attire but still so haughtily self-assured, even with her pint-sized friend cradling her waist to help her walk.

Metal creaked and wailed all around her as she flexed against her bonds once more, her whole body tensed and chest thrown out as a guttural howl swelled in her core, frustrations finding an outlet she wouldn't mind chasing away. And then she was cast in shadow, Mako plastered against the glass, looking straight into her. And she was lost in those big amber eyes, so wide and determined. The rage dwindled, executed by a whisper.

"It's okay. I'm here with you."

She kissed the glass, leaving imprints of her lips as she dropped down, guarding the tube with her arms folded under her chest, giving Satsuki and Nonon the meanest pout she could muster as they limped up to the prison, Doctor Matoi trailing behind them with a couple words to the guards. Nonon jutted her chin at the abandoned chair.

"Mind if we borrow that? This one's recovering from her own stupid decisions and she's too proud to admit it."

Mako extended a hand, palm out flat.

"500 Yen for ten minutes."

"You must be joking."

"It's my chair, I can charge what I want."

"It's got a Nudist Beach symbol on it, how is it yours?"

"Cause I'm the one who brought it in here."

Ryuko snorted, cutting the staring match between her and Satsuki short.

"Let her have it Mako. Poor little Satsuki's never lost a fight before. She must be in such dreadful shock."

Satsuki refused to be guided into the seat, pushing away from Nonon and settling down of her own accord. She didn't look terribly comfortable. Good, then they'd be on equal footing. She looked to Mako for the first time since she'd entered.

"Might we have some privacy? This is a family matter."

"Nope! You brought your girlfriend, so I get to support Ryuko too!"

Satsuki and Nonon exchanged a glance. Ryuko bit down the urge to laugh.

"We are not dating."

"I mean, if I swung that way I wouldn't kick her out of bed, but she's just so high maintenance."

"Frigid too." Ryuko chipped in, feeling a surge of confidence at the slight twitch on Satsuki's face. The others would have missed it, but she couldn't hide from her. Not anymore.

This, she decided, would be even better than beating her black and blue. She'd tear her whole world out from under her feet, confront her with her treacheries and crimes and make her beg for forgiveness. And then she'd deny her it, and when she finally broke free of this prison there would be two bodies to hand over to mother.

"Also, what privacy? There're at least three cameras in here, including one pointed straight at my tits. I mean, you should know Satsuki. You're the one who sold me out to the fucking Nudists. But hey, you did such a good job pretending to care about me before you had me chucked in here. 'Get the hell away from my sister', was it? Weird how that turned into 'please imprison my sister and rob her of her best friend.'"

"As I understand it, if Junketsu were here, you would be unable to converse with me in the first place. Which would you prefer, total paralysis or some autonomy?"

"Oh yeah, because I've got so much leg room in here."

"I'm sorry." Satsuki sighed. "This is far from how I wanted this to go between us. I would have rather left Nudist Beach out of our affairs entirely."

"Annoying little cockroaches, aren't they? No matter how hard I stamped down, they never seem to die."

"I'm glad we can agree on something, if not for the same reason."

She flinched, and grabbed hold of her anger once more.

"Don't you start pretending there's anything between us right now Satsuki. Not after what you did. Especially not while you're working with them."

"No, not right now. Which is why I want to talk to you. About the last two years, and how we ended up here."

"Well, I'm not exactly going anywhere. So let's start from the beginning. Starting with you faking your fucking death."


	18. Conversation

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AN: Quick bit of self-promotion. As I literally cannot stop writing, I've done another KLK AU one-shot, entitled Morning Glory. It's unrelated to this and a good deal lighter, but if you're interested, hit it up.

Chapter 18: Conversation 

_"Oh my Satsuki, I think you've gone through a growth spurt again!"_

_"Nui, remove your hands or have them removed."_

_Ryuko rolled her eyes at the sound of a swift and well-deserved thump from behind, continuing to undress away from her sister's antics._

_"Ryuko, Satsuki hit me!"_

_"Quit screwing around then. It's purification day, not P.E. class."_

_Sunday was the day of rest and as such, the holiest day of the week. And, as they did each and every week, the sisters had assembled in the grandeur of the Kiryuin estate's baths to cleanse themselves, body and soul, while deepening their connections to not only one another, but to the divine vestments that would be the undoing of humanity. Ryuko wrapped herself in a towel, casting a look back to see Nui dejectedly doing the same, her own gaze fixed firmly upon Satsuki's chest. Well, she was hardly wrong to do so. Their eldest sister was striding into adulthood with the same steely grace that defined everything she did in life. No gangly awkwardness for her, but rather a statue of shapely perfection that merely needed to be cultivated until she stood as tall and well-proportioned as their mother._

_It was such a shame that she seemed to loathe Sundays, her own towel wrapped around her in haste, her posture uncharacteristically shrunken as she stared into her locker, as if the cubicle had some desired secret smuggled away. The sight of it only served to fan the flame in Ryuko's heart, and so she sealed her own belongings and set out first, not waiting for the others._

_In a stroke of luck, it seemed that her mother had decided to do away with the grand entrances today, merely sitting by the side of the bath in her own set of towels, her feet dipped in the shallows. Her divinity rolled down from the back of her neck, multi-coloured lights shining upon her scars, the marks of her ascension. Unlike Ryuko, she had not been chosen by the Life Fibers, but instead had been asked to prove herself as their prophet, uplifted from humanity into something better. Her gaze was lost in the waters, and remained equally unknowable as she registered the early entrance, slowly fixing Ryuko in her sights._

_"Ryuko. You're early. And alone."_

_First breach of protocol. They were supposed to enter and exit as one, and only when they were summoned. There was no heat in her mother's voice, yet Ryuko couldn't help the sickeningly cold drop that raced from throat to the pit of her stomach at the idea of performing their duties incorrectly. She dipped her head, as if it could somehow salve the insults of her selfish desires._

_"Sorry mum. It's just that I needed to speak to you alone, before the ceremony."_

_She heard the door crack behind her, but not fully. Mother noticed it too, beckoning Ryuko closer with a finger. They sat shoulder to shoulder in the shallows, and a quick peak over to the door saw it lit up with a wave of blonde. Her mother leaned down to her, joining their thoughts via the exposed patches of skin that rubbed up against each other, the fibers of their beings linking together unseen. No words, only intentions, pure and unclouded. Ryuko made her pitch, and it was considered. The voice in her mind fell silent, and when her mother spoke next, it was directed to the material world._

_"Nui, Satsuki, cease skulking by the door like a pair of petty thugs and enter correctly."_

_Stone rumbled open fully, her sisters entering the chamber with the usual motions. Ryuko went to join them, only to be held at her mother's side, gently cradled at the hip. Satsuki and Nui kept their eyes to the floor until they were ordered otherwise. Now Nui looked just as closed-up as Satsuki, invoking her own act of rebellion with nervous glances to their mother, awaiting direction._

_Long hands came together, a smile on their mother's face. For some reason she couldn't put a name on, it wasn't as comforting as it usually was._

_"Girls, Ryuko has come to me with a proposal, as is her right as the successor to our clan. As such, we shall be splitting up for today and focusing on today's rituals with a degree of greater self-reflection. Nui, you are to attend to me. Satsuki, you shall be attended to by Ryuko. Give thanks to your sister."_

_"Thank you Ryuko, thank you mother." They answered without a blink, heads bowed once again. Mother held out a hand and began to guide Nui into the depths, behind the fountain until they were little more than faint silhouettes, drifting mist in the shadow of the marble pillars. Confident that they wouldn't be disturbed, Ryuko took Satsuki's hand with a smile, and similarly led her in the opposite direction, to the shallows by the stairs. A gesture and Satsuki was seated, still hugging the towel tightly around her torso. Ryuko took up residence behind her, pulling a string out from a finger and using it to tie her sister's long hair up into a ponytail._

_"Just close your eyes and relax Satsuki. I promise you that I'll make you feel good."_

_The request was followed but the tension didn't leave her shoulders, hard knots of muscle refusing to relent to her whispers of solitude and the gentle touch of anointing. Ryuko worked diligently nonetheless, kneading the skin without second thoughts, tracing the body's contours and invoking what chakra points she had access to. But head, shoulders and arms alone did not make for true cleansing, and so she grasped the towel and gently peeled it away. There was some resistance, but only for a second and then they were both bare, Ryuko moving once again, her hands working down Satsuki's back, attempting to soften the statue sat before her. Satsuki made no sounds, no indications that she might be enjoying herself, serving only to double Ryuko's efforts as she came around to the front, taking each leg in turn and caressing them with her usual infinite care, no part left wanting as she made her way back up the body, sliding her hands along the inner thighs, tracing up to that well-toned stomach._

_She was about to move in closer, slide between her legs to place them face-to-face and start kissing her when her hands were captured, Satsuki abandoning the shield across her breasts and holding her in place. Her features, usually either so confident or stoic, had been brought to a tightness so thin that her very skin seemed on the verge of cracking and falling away into ash._

_"Please. No more."_

_She'd never heard Satsuki sound so small before, never seen her only one word away from tears. The strangeness of it broke her out of the trance of routine, and she knelt there, dumbfounded, until the thought to peel away and sit beside her instead took dominance instead. Hip to hip they sat, just watching the ripples pool about their feet. The stiffness didn't truly leave Satsuki until she was able to fish her towel out from the waters, wrapping the sodden thing about her once more. And still she didn't look at Ryuko, finding great intrigue in the marbles as she slowly reassembled herself._

_From somewhere off in the mists, there was a moan like a human mimicking the thrum of a tumble dryer at full spin. At the very least, Nui was enjoying herself today. Ryuko had only just about summoned the courage to broach a question when a second voice floated through to them._

_"Ryuko? Satsuki? Is everything well?"_

_They jolted as one, ice flooding Ryuko's veins as she realised she'd broken holy doctrine in the worst way, interrupted rituals for nothing more than a plea that she didn't understand herself. But as she tripped over herself stumbling for an excuse; a counter-cry broke the baths._

_Satsuki, head up and deathly focused all of a sudden, panting and breathing heavily. Her body heaved with pretend ecstasy, her voice rising in a perfect mimicry of desire until it hit a crescendo in a pure, high-throated moan that echoed long after she had let it loose. And all the time it circled the baths, her glare never left the pillars mother and Nui had vanished behind._

_There was a long pause of silence, and then, a husky purr; "Oh my. Seems we inquired at the right time."_

_"Wow! I've never heard Satsuki go like that before! Me next Ryuko!"_

_Hearing her name snapped her out of the dullness that had taken her watching Satsuki's feigned lust, and she slapped her hand against the water as hard as she could. Satsuki snapped to her, and Ryuko was already indicating towards the door._

_"One sec Nui! I think the water's a bit too warm for Satsuki, she's burning up! I'm just going to drop her off in the dressing room!"_

_Mother made a remark about Satsuki's frailty as a human, but it went unheard as they sloshed out of the baths, making for the doors with greater speed than Ryuko had planned. The stone had barely closed behind them and Satsuki was already exchanging towels, the soaked one hitting the tiles with a slap as she seized a fresh one and began to dry herself rapidly._

_"Thank you. For a number of things."_

_Ryuko didn't bother to dress, seating herself upon one of the wooden benches and watching her sister. Satsuki couldn't find her underwear quickly enough, each additional article of clothing bringing her closer to her usual self._

_"Was I really that bad? Like, I really had to twist mum's arm to get her to let us go at it alone, cause I know you hate being watched when we bathe. At least, I thought that was the problem. But…"_

_"Being watched, watching or any other combination is not the problem. This situation is the problem."_

_"It's just purification."_

_"Purification is the name she puts to molestation and outright sexual abuse. It is not normal for a mother to encourage her daughters to engage like this, let alone join in herself."_

_"Who cares what's normal? We're not normal people. We're above them."_

_"Does prescribed incest really make you so enlightened?"_

_"No, being the chosen family of the Life Fibers does. Come on Satsuki, do you really hate it so much? Most of the treatment is for your benefit anyway. To bring you closer to us."_

_"Do you really believe that having you and Nui rub, suck and plunge into me is creating any sort of bond with the Life Fibers? She just got done insulting me for being 'only human'. She forces me to keep my eyes open as you work, she demands that I repay the favour in kind. This isn't about any sort of connection. It's about power and control."_

_"It's not! It's an important ritual! We need to do this, for the sake of the future, to help us connect with one another!"_

_"If that is the case, then why do I show no signs of increased symbiosis, even after all these years? That is the promise she made for this, is it not?"_

_"I… then we'll need to find a new way. But we can't do that if you're not involved. I like to think we're connecting. I mean… you're good at it."_

_She crossed her legs, feeling phantom shivers of a memory. The locker clicked closed. From the frown on Satsuki's face, it wasn't quite the complement Ryuko had intended._

_"When you get back in there, ask her that we might strive to find a new way of increasing my compatibility, for my sake. You have the right to do, by the decrees of her own beliefs. Tell her that you don't want the sanctity of the baths ruined by a human anymore, whatever lie suits her best."_

_"But I do want you here! I want you to enjoy yourself as well!"_

_The frown warbled. Satsuki didn't turn to face her._

_"Whatever she feeds you, come back and tell it to me. I promise you; she will insist on nothing but the baths."_

_Ryuko was about to retaliate when the door was thrown open, a mound of sopping blonde hair standing there. Nui parted the strands, a waterfall sploshing out as she revealed her naked glory._

_"Are you done yet? Come on, I want my turn!"_

_"Sure, just let me…"_

_She turned back, but Satsuki was already gone. Ryuko rose to her feet with a sigh, and let herself be dragged back into the baths by Nui, still not sure why she'd aided Satsuki's departure in the first place._

_The question was raised to their mother, but the answer never left the bathhouse._

* * *

Satsuki cocked her head to the side, gears spinning behind her eyes as she considered the accusation.

"Faking my death? That is news to me."

"Bull-shit." Ryuko slurred from behind the glass.

"On the contrary. I was aware that she was planning to have me killed, but my disappearance was meant only to be that – a disappearance. It was far easier to sneak out of the country by myself than set up a ruse that she'd never buy in the first place."

"She wasn't going to have you killed! You were supposed to be heading home for reassignment!"

"Yes, collected by Kuroido and driven home. The file I found in his computer was very clear on the matter. And if I resisted, I was to be disposed of in the same way as father. Car accidents would become a curse upon this family, leading Ragyo to lobby for increased road safety measures, a pledge of money that would find its way straight to the pockets of those in government that sit in her pocket. And if I made it home… well, I'm sure the same story would have been used, but she would have had her fill of me first. Revenge for tainting her 'purer' daughters, no doubt."

"And how convenient that you don't have this file on you."

"Sadly, yes. I had hoped to come before you with a litany of evidence as to her wrong-doings. Unfortunately, that file was contained upon Nonon's tablet computer, which we are no longer in possession of."

"If I might be allowed to step in."

Doctor Matoi had finished up with his men, a great deal of Nudist Beach operatives now guarding the doors. He reached deep down into one of the pockets of his long lab coat, and after some rummaging, withdrew the familiar electric-pink tablet.

"Some of my men stopped off at my manor during the evacuation, and they were able to collect your gear, as well as my old blueprints. Thank you for cleaning up the place, by the way."

Satsuki took it from him with a nod, and set to flicking through files as the doctor wound around to the great machine keeping Ryuko in place, reading instruments and flicking pipes.

"You'll have to forgive me, but I've torn out the wireless capabilities for security purposes. But I assume you'd never use cloud-based servers."

"You assume correctly. Too much chance of interference."

"Well aren't you two all chummy? What was that about leaving Nudist Beach out of our affairs again?"

Satsuki said nothing, locating the file in question. She rose with some effort, bringing the screen to the view-glass of the tube and holding there for Ryuko to read. As promised, the information was just as she'd said. Time and date, proposed collection point and disposal location. Details for how the 'accident' would be framed, and the resulting actions taken from there on out. Ryuko was quiet as she scanned the document over again and again.

"Wow." She said finally. "You put a lot of work into making all this shit up. I'm actually kind of impressed."

"You believe that I falsified these documents?"

"Makes a nice excuse, doesn't it? You need to justify turning on your family, so there's always something. You accuse her of overlooking you no matter how good you do, only to turn around and say that she beats you while you're trying to sleep, you claim that purification rituals are just abuse, targeted only at you, of course."

She shrugged as best she could with her arms locked in place. Somewhere behind the tube, there was a faint clang as Doctor Matoi dropped a spanner, scrambling to recollect it.

"What's a little murder conspiracy on top of all that? You even reused the same stretch of road that father died on for the 'accident'."

"Kuroido's lack of imagination in corpse disposal aside, in order to fabricate this whole affair, I would need to be able to recreate not only his office email but also mother's, not to mention mimic her general writing style, her signature, the falsified alibi for his location at the time of the 'accident', and locate the details of several government officials, including mother's pet name for the Prime Minister."

"Who said that you had to do it? It's computer shit, Inumuta could have spun it up for you before you left."

"You are half correct. It is only thanks to him that I was able to confirm my suspicions in the first place."

"Yeah, you caught him breaking into the stocks and shares sector originally, right? Piece of cake for that loser. Boy Satsuki, this little story of yours is falling apart faster and faster."

"According to the technical specifics, these files were transferred to me a week before I left. That was the week we were swept off our feet preparing Honnouji for its grand opening, rarely out of sight of the other. When would I find have found the time to prepare the mechanisms of the accident without you knowing? To hire a car, presumably create a body double and everything else needed?"

"Again, who said it had to be you? If you were willing to get Inumuta in on this, then Gamagoori and Uzu could have also been running around in the background while you kept me distracted."

Satsuki returned to the chair, the tablet in her lap.

"I could arrange for Inumuta and Iori to testify on my behalf for my actions during that week, but I suspect you'd pay them no more mind than you do me."

"Yeah, cause they're both in your pocket."

"You remember the exchange before we split up, don't you? Whatever allegiance Inumuta had to me has clearly been severed. I cannot speak for Iori's opinions of me right now, but it makes no difference to me if he has also come to hate me."

"And isn't that just you in a nutshell? He can't be used by you, so who cares? Just throw him away!"

"A bold accusation, given how you tend to treat those under your umbrella."

"Cattle are to be treated as the farmer pleases. It makes no difference if they are slaughtered ahead of time."

"Generally speaking, that is considered a waste of good meat, and appalling farming technique."

"Shut up. You know what I meant."

They were quiet for a time, just watching each other with Mako and Nonon watching nervously from the side-lines. Satsuki picked the conversation first.

"I didn't want to leave you behind, you know. If I had the chance, we would have fled together."

"Fucking excuse me? Who says I wanted to go with you at all? Unlike you, I actually give a damn about our family!"

"Then why did you ask me why I didn't take you with me?"

Ryuko squeaked out a strangled noise, her cheeks going from a dim grey to almost normal tone.

"You also wondered why I never spoke to you about it, and wondered what you did wrong, why I didn't consider you good enough. For the record, you've done nothing wrong, and you've always been good enough. By me, at least. Your actions towards others leave much to be considered."

"You… you were supposed to be knocked out!"

"On the cusp, but not quite. I will only truly fall when the ground beneath my feet is gone."

"Oh, fuck off with the imposing one-liners! I haven't thought they were cool since we were kids!"

"Funny you should say that, since we spent the night before I left writing up a full page of ideas for your own use. You wanted to make a dominating impression even after your inaugural speech."

"What? No we didn't."

The colour had drained out again, Ryuko staring through the glass in utmost confusion.

"We never… we came home, and you didn't want to talk to me for some reason… I watched a movie, and then we… went to bed."

"What did we do there?"

Ryuko went to say something, but stopped, face furrowed. She looked down and away, jaw moving emptily. Then the strange quietness passed, and she snapped back up, fire in her eyes.

"Who cares? It doesn't matter. Why do you even pretend to care, you ran off on us! You want us all dead!"

Satsuki ceased leaning forward, returned to ruler-straight posture.

"I want mother dead. I want to save you two from her."

"We don't need saving! Nothing is wrong! There wouldn't even be a problem if you just got over yourself and this pathetic inferiority complex of yours! Look, I'm sorry that you weren't blessed like the rest of the family, but that's no reason to take it out on us!"

"I'm not taking anything out on anyone. I want to protect this planet, and the best way to do that is to sever the head of the snake. So long as Ragyo Kiryuin lives, events are going to drive towards destruction for one side or the other. And I wanted to bring you with me, I wanted to explain all of this to you, help you see how bad things have gotten, but that – that confusion right there, that misremembering of events between us, the deflection into another subject – that is why I couldn't risk it."

"I told you, stop calling her by her name!"

"Ryuko, what did I just say?"

"You said you wanted to kill mum, and you used her name again, and you need to stop doing that because it's fucking weird!"

"And after that?"

"I don't know!"

Satsuki leant back a bit, closed her eyes, took a long breath.

"I only just said it. Try and listen to me now. Every time I have tried to expose mother's faults to you, every time I've tried to suggest a path other than the total extinction of mankind, every time she broke the façade of pretending she had any love in her heart for me, you go blank. You show no memory of events that took place before you, you change the subject on me as forcibly as you can, violently if need be. Again and again I have watched you reduced to a husk, push through it and come back to me, only to forget anew the next day. And this is why I couldn't bring you with me. I couldn't predict what would happen the moment I brought up the subject of rebellion. Maybe you would have killed me in a heartbeat. Maybe you would have flown straight to her and sold me out without even meaning to, and killed me by proxy. I feared that you would stand by her side at my funeral and wonder who exactly was being buried at all. More than that, I feared what my own death would mean for the rest of humanity."

"You were afraid?"

"The most I had ever been."

Ryuko looked away, face all scrunched up and teeth gritted, glaring at something only she could see. Then her head snapped back up, and fury returned to her.

"Liar. You're never afraid. Not cool, overachieving, perfect Satsuki Kiryuin, too good for the rest of us but never good enough where it really matters."

"The best way to know fear, to smother it, is to live with it constantly over one's shoulder. I have lived in fear of what that woman would do to you and I ever since father died. And I have lived to see all of those fears realised. When did it start Ryuko? The mindless bloodlust, the active desire to cull instead of waiting for the promised day? You've never cared that much about other people, but I never would have taken you for such a butcher."

"They're just meat, who cares when they die?"

"Then why are you denying Life Fibers precious meals?"

"I… I do what I want."

"Even when it's counter-intuitive to what your masters want?"

"I have no master!"

"Really? Then who's strings compel you to put the planet to death? Who is it that has controlled your life since the day you were born? Who hangs REVOCS high and supported their rise to the top? You're nothing more than a puppet to them Ryuko, a means to a meal!"

"They're my true family, more than you've ever been!"

The chair clattered over sideways, Satsuki storming to her feet, ignoring the lances of pain driven all over as she stalked towards the tube, slammed her fists against it and glared down on Ryuko.

"Is that so? Tell me then Ryuko, who is it that saw you through thunderstorms and scary movies as a child? Who always kept the side of her bed open so that you and Nui could crawl in during the night? Who helped you cover up childish crimes of mischief, even know that she'd be the one to catch the blame instead? Who aided you with schoolwork, taught you to fight, watched your back in lunch halls and boardroom meetings, helped you time and time and time again? Who was it you trusted to build you a sword that could survive your swings, who supported you in all your endeavours, who was the first person you went to when the creation of Honnouji seemed out of reach? Who could have killed you and Junketsu at least twice during your fight with her, but wanted nothing more than for you to lay down your blade and talk instead? Enlighten me Ryuko, because clearly I've been missing something these seventeen years!"

Ryuko had no space to fall back, only able to recoil and twist with every question, her half-started mumblings crushed under the weight of Satsuki's words. Cold sweat was gushing down her brow now, her breaths as laboured as if they'd been exchanging sword blows again. Confusion reigned paramount, and every time she tried to meet Satsuki's weathered stare she crumpled in on herself.

There was a final look upwards and for a second, Satsuki caught a look of sheer helplessness, right before the light dimmed in her eyes and she went limp, hanging loosely forward in her prison of metal and glass. Mako was already up and crying Ryuko's name, but it went deaf on Satsuki's ears as she limped over to the overturned chair, turning it the right way up with some effort and seating herself once more. The rest of the world washed out, leaving nothing but that tube and the pale body hanging within until a hand fell upon her shoulder, snapping her from her stupor.

"She isn't dead. We'd know already if she was." Doctor Matoi rumbled, stroking his beard.

"Of course not." She shrugged the hand away, sat up straighter. "But clearly something has been done to her. She's recognising what I'm saying, but she isn't allowed to engage with it. She deflects into insults, loses the thread of conversation, forgets what she's just been told."

Doctor Matoi kept looking forward with her, stoking his chin.

"Well, I'm not much of a psychologist, but if I had to guess she seems to be suffering some form of anosognosia. I'll keep running scans for now, see if we can't get any new data while she's shut down. Go take a break, there's nothing more to be done right now."

"Didn't your council wish to pass judgement upon me?"

"Oh yes, but I told them to cool their jets for a couple of days. Cross-examining an injured patient is just bad manners all around."

"You know, considering we shot you, you're awfully good to us. Sorry about that, by-the-by." Nonon chipped in, coming in on Satsuki's other side.

"Bah. An accident, nothing more. If I let myself get slogged down every time I'd been set on fire, I'd never get anything done. And besides, as much as the men hate to hear it, you were right. We don't have anyone on your level. Tsumugu's getting up there, but nowhere close to holding REVOCS' inner circle to a fair fight."

"So you'll be submitting the Rending Scissors to my care?" Satsuki asked, not straying from the tube.

"Of course not! I might be able to get the men to accept this little scientific alliance to keep Ryuko locked down, but so long as you keep up that lousy attitude of yours, they'll never sign off on letting the Scissors out, and I'm somewhat inclined to agree with them on that matter. Swallow that damned pride of yours and maybe we can get somewhere in this war."

Satsuki said nothing, merely standing up and offering an arm to Nonon, letting her slip under.

"We'll get some drinks and return. I want to be in the room when she wakes up."

"Sure, sure. Vending machines are just down the hall."

He reached into his pocket, palmed off a handful of loose change to Nonon, who looked about as pleased as anyone did realising that they'd be shifting through coins to get anywhere.

"Oi, Saviour Complex, you want anything?"

"Milk tea please, and a coffee for Ryuko! That'll wake her up quick-fast! Just gotta figure out how to get it in there…"

Nonon rolled her eyes, and began leading Satsuki out past the rows of gunmen.

* * *

As promised, they found a little break room with the vending machines within. A number of propaganda posters lined the walls, proclaiming 'An End to the Tyranny of Cloth' and 'Better Dead Than Thread'. It took Nonon the better part of five minutes to find the exact change in the lump sum she'd been handed, grumbling all the time until she convinced the machine to take the same damn coins it had ignored not moments ago and spit out the required drinks. Satsuki just sat and stared at the ceiling, not losing focus until Nonon plopped down into a chair beside her.

"Old geezers and their shrapnel. Just pay on card like everyone else god-damnit. Doesn't he know it's 2013 already?"

She held a bottle of iced tea out to Satsuki, and it was taken loosely, her taller friend working on it with quick sips.

"Take your time. It's been a long day and we've not even hit noon."

She opened up her own milk tea and sipped on it, keeping Satsuki in the corner of her eye in case she went running off without her. Or limping off, as the case might be.

"So, I'm an only child, obviously. When you roll perfection the first time around, you don't tend to double-dip on kids." She started with a cheeky smile, keeping the silence at bay. "Know a lot of people with siblings though. Honestly seems like the biggest pain in the backside you could have, some kid hanging around that's got no respect for you despite everything you do for them. Can't even get rid of them like you would a bad friend, cause they're parked up in your house. And I've never really known Ryuko like you do. Plenty of time with the Tyrant of Honnouji, but not the Ryuko you seem to know. So I'll admit to being pretty dubious when you say there used to be a sweet girl under all that blood and fire."

No change on Satsuki's face. Sardonic humour wasn't hitting like it normally did. Nonon leant back, scratched the back of her head.

"It's been what, eight-odd months since you picked my drunk ass up and gave me some purpose? And I remember you as a kid, strutting about the High-Handed Kindergarten like it was a chore to be there. And in all that time, I've never seen you so rattled as you are right now."

Satsuki said nothing, which rather proved her point.

"What I'm trying to get to here is that maybe there is a nicer Ryuko somewhere in that tube, and I'm here with you for as long as it takes to fish her out of there. No matter what happens. And we'll go rescue Ira, box Nui's ears and get her to cut it out, kill your mum, save the world and then, you and I are going on a long holiday, because gods know we've earned it. So, if you need to talk about anything, or need me to hold your hand, or whatever… just know, I'm here for you, okay?"

There was a long beat of silence, Satsuki staring off into the middle distance. Then in one swift movement, she downed the last of her iced tea, crushed the bottle and threw it into the recycling.

"What was I expecting? For Ragyo's machinations to crumble after only one conversation? Foolish."

She found her feet, grabbing the drinks for Mako and Ryuko as she went.

"Thank you Nonon. I was getting rather lost in myself for a moment there."

"Ah, don't worry about it. You've always had a speech to hand when we were faltering. Figured I'd just repay the favour for once."

"Well then, let us get back to work."

She held her arm out, Nonon taking her place in support. It felt a good deal warmer than it had a few hours prior.

They'd barely taken two steps back the other way when Houka came the other way, head down in his laptop and drifting around them more out of automaton than real recognition.

"Oi, watch you're stepping Mutt!"

He sparked into life, surprise quickly morphing into distaste.

"Jakuzure. Kiryuin."

He set he laptop down on one of the chairs and closed it with the gentlest of care, punching two drink orders into the machine.

"Don't you have some doomed project to be working on?"

"We were just returning to it, actually." Satsuki replied.

A snort.

"I must need my eyes tested again, because whatever light you and Mankanshoku claim to see in her doesn't register to me."

"Then we shall have to do our best to drag it out for you. Good day Inumuta."

"Was it worth it Kiryuin? Running off across the world, leaving us under her yoke? Did you find what you were looking for?"

"Of course not. Otherwise we wouldn't be in this situation to begin with."

Leather squeaked on linoleum, a choked breath from behind them.

"Then what the hell was all of this for? What did we suffer under the tyrant's lash for? You promised us a changed world, yet all we've done is struggle to hold back the blood!"

"For what it is worth, I am sorry for everything you've had to suffer."

"That's not what I wanted to hear."

"I know. But the truth is that I don't have the answers for you, because they continue to evade me as well. All I can do now is try to turn back the clock a little, and hope that the path ahead becomes brighter for it."

"Hope? That's you have? No plans, no path to victory?"

"It's all I've ever had for that girl. Thank you for your work until now Inumuta. May you find better prospects under your new masters."

Satsuki urged her forwards, Nonon matching step and tightening the grip on her side. The crash of Inumuta kicking one of the machines followed them down the halls. Satsuki's frozen face didn't so much as twitch.

* * *

"The current interrogation-slash-reformation project has been ongoing for three days now, and, so far as the transcripts show, we are paying to be party to the intellectual equivalent of two children screaming 'uh-huh? nuh-uh!' back and forth. Ms Kiryuin, you do not come here as a friend. One would think that a woman in your position would be trying harder to give us proper results."

The make-up of the Nudist Council hadn't changed much since her last meeting with them, save for the ghostly figure of Houka hanging at the edge of the room, serving as Tsumugu's note-taker. They hadn't spoken since the confrontation in the break room, despite frequently crossing over via the medium of Doctor Matoi through his various projects. Unsurprising. They had nothing more to give one another, and she could not blame him for his hate. She had left him in the hands of an increasingly volatile despot, after all.

At least she was walking entirely under her own power now, even if Nonon still remained overprotectively close to her side. Which was good enough for Nudist Beach's ruling body to call her to defend herself.

Each of the five seated men before her represented the sum total efforts of each of the group's divisions – military, scientific, subterfuge and economic, with Tsumugu Kinagase forcing the Naked Nudist's ideals to the table and Doctor Matoi serving as the grand authority, keeping the meeting in order. The head general was her prosecutor today, a large man with a larger moustache and a barrel-chest covered in medals.

**THE NUDIST COUNCIL**

"On the contrary General, progress is slow but steady. Every conversation with Ryuko has revealed a new trigger that sets off her condition. Mentioning my mother by name forces her to ignore anything I say until I refer to her as 'mother' or otherwise. Comparing memories works only until three contrasting points clash, at which point she fights herself and shuts down again. Mako Mankanshoku's testimony claims that this is not regular behaviour for her, her other psychoses aside."

"Yes, yet she remains increasingly clear-headed when speaking on her opinions of humanity."

"If you were raised to know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that humanity is nothing more than a cattle-race bred exclusively for consumption by a so-called superior lifeform, how far would you stray from that belief? Humans have stuck more doggedly to equally dangerous thinking for the entire scope of history, and unlike most cults, this one has extra-terrestrial support."

"If this thinking is so intrenched, how do you expect to be able to undo it?"

"Because I have been fighting against my mother's indoctrinations my entire life, ever since my father died. Attempting to turn her away from this path. And while Ryuko was accepting of the 'fate' destined for humanity, she rarely showed the same level of relish for destruction that she does these days. Again, testimonies from Houka Inumuta and Mankanshoku show that this was not a gradual descent into madness, but rather a concentrated swing from unhappy teenager to blood-soaked villain."

"This correct Inumuta?" Tsumugu bit off, without looking back. Houka pushed up his glasses, his eyes lost in the reflective glare. It took him a second to speak, and when he did it was with a distinct air of bitterness.

"After Satsuki's 'death', Ryuko fell into a period of depression, as to be expected from losing a close family member. The Naturals Elections as we know them were born during this time, the starting point for her casual disregard for the well-being of others. However… yes, she only began actively killing about a year later, shortly before she burned down the Honnouji slums and expelled Ira Gamagoori, a prelude to the madness with which she has ruled ever since."

"That she's suffering mental attacks from simple verbal confrontation is proof enough that she may not be acting entirely under her own volition. It would one thing if she were putting her fingers into her ears and shutting us out, but that physiological reactions are invoked means that there's more to this than meets the eye." Doctor Matoi supplied, pushing a stack of medical notes across the long table to his fellow. The General barely skimmed over the first page before pushing them aside.

"Very well, but it doesn't change the fact that we are expending unnecessary amounts of our limited budget keeping her contained, when we can achieve the same result with a simple cut from the Rending Scissors. In fact, I believe it to be a better decision. Even if Ryuko Kiryuin has gone some form of mental readjustment, the words of her own sister prove that her allegiances lie with REVOCS first and foremost. If all we're aiming to do is turn an active player into a passive one, then I move that we should carry out an execution, and avenge those lost to Honnouji in one fell swoop."

"Firstly General, if you'd bothered to check more than one page of the report, you'd see that the expenditures for Ryuko's treatment are coming out of my share of the finances, and I have money to burn. As a Human-Life Fiber hybrid, I have a vested interest in examining her, and so she remains in my custody. An autopsy will not provide the same level of understanding. Furthermore… well, I believe young Satsuki would cause quite the ruckus should her sister come to any harm."

"Doctor, I do not understand why you allow yourself to be held hostage like this! A teenage girl cannot overthrow Nudist Beach! She has no weapons! We have removed her claws! She is still recovering from major surgery!"

"And yet." Satsuki interrupted, eyes drifting from left to right across the long table, "the majority of this council sits on the balls of their feet, waiting for me to make a move. Not without good reason, of course. The last time we met, three young people took on the entirety of Nudist Beach and escaped the city with only one injury."

She peeled back her hairline, revealing the scar from the glancing shot she'd taken in Nonon's place.

"Now, as that was a retreating mission, we obviously did not expend our full force in fighting back. If we had stood our ground, perhaps your numbers would have overwhelmed us. Maybe our strength would have seen off your men. We have no way to tell, but either outcome would have only been to REVOCS' advantage. So let me instead call upon what I have gained since being imprisoned here."

She took a breath, glanced to Doctor Matoi, leaning forwards with fingers steepled in anticipation.

"I confess, I underestimated Nudist Beach. While your military force may not be on par with REVOCS', your group is not without its merits. That my companion's broken arm has already been healed, and that my own injuries are already starting to be put behind me, is testament to your medical advancements. While your forces cannot actively put an end to Life Fibers, you have devised a number of methods to cripple and control them instead. If not for your intervention at the Sudden Death Runoffs, I would likely be at the mercy of my mother at this time. I pride myself in recognising talent, and it is to my shame that I diminished yours."

She bowed her head before them, but not too far.

"You have my apologies for my former dismissal of your organisation, and my thanks for your current containment of Ryuko."

A murmur of conversation went back and forth, before the Nudist Spymaster leant forward, slicked-back black hair shining under the lights.

"Just your apologies and your thanks?"

"I will not insult you at this time by pretending mere words will reconstruct the bridge I burned. Contact will be kept only to Doctor Matoi at this time, but if we are successful in bringing Ryuko back from the pit she has fallen into, then I will submit myself to be used as this group desires. Let suicide missions and frontline charges be my repentance for the crimes assumed of me by dint of my bloodline."

"And if your sister returns to the person you claim her to be, and still decides to fight on behalf of the Life Fibers?"

"Then I will execute her myself. If Ryuko is to die, it should be by my hand."

"That seems like a fair arrangement, does it not, gentlemen?"

Doctor Matoi looked left and right, demanding argument from the rest of the council.

"That we are to trust a Kiryuin to keep her word?" Tsumugu bit back.

"The problem with Kiryuins keeping their word is not the validity, but rather what they promise to do." The Spymaster shot back. "I can accept this arrangement."

"When it comes to Satsuki, what she says is what you get. You can take that to the bank. Not the Japanese one of course, but the Takaradas will be happy to cash that cheque."

It said much of the motley crew before her that between the old man in the long lab coat, the warrior in nought but straps, the clanging of a thousand military medals and the quiet spy in his bespoke suit, the young man drowning in furs and jewellery managed to be the strangest of them all, golden teeth and spectacles flashing as he spoke.

**KANEO TAKARADA**

The scion to the Takarada conglomerate gave her one of his usual sleazy winks, and was thanked with a nod in return. The General stoked his chin thoughtfully for a moment.

"I call first dibs on her. She is quite the fighter… we could take back Kobe and start the push back against REVOCS in no time at all. And we'll use that sister of hers as insurance to make sure she stays in line."

"Now now, there's no need to be distasteful about it. Very well, if we're all in agreement..."

A chair scraped backwards, Tsumugu making for the door and out the other side before his name could be called. Doctor Matoi sighed.

"That will have to be another meeting for another time. But I assume this is acceptable? Ms Kiryuin's services in exchange for the continued treatment of her sister?"

The motion passed through four to one. And with the doctor uninterested in pressing charges against Nonon for the accident, the council dispersed for the day, Doctor Matoi re-joining the girls as they headed back to Ryuko's prison.

"Let that be the last we have to hear from them."

"Hmph. You should have heard them the day you got here. Summary executions, no chance of a real trial. I've been throwing the book at them in disgust for the past few meetings, and once I wrote to Takarada that their representative was committing to a bad deal, they sent Kaneo down instead. Flashy git, but he's a good boy at heart. Once he was here, I had two voices spinning them around to the idea that we wouldn't be working with you, but using you to our ends."

"Which just leaves Kinagase and the Naked Nudists."

"A harder bunch to grapple with, but that is my problem to deal with, not yours. Well done on committing to the idea, by the way. I wasn't sure you'd go along with it, let alone give them the apology they wanted."

"'Swallow your damn pride and maybe we'll get somewhere in this war', I believe you said? By anyone's view, between my current condition and Ryuko's, you have me over a barrel. They wanted me to come around and see them as the 'right' force in this war. I simply played into what the room desired. Let them deploy me where they want, let them pantomime Ryuko as a lure to ensure my compliance, it will finish with my blades about Ragyo's neck one way or the other. In time, they will come to understand that I am their only real chance at victory."

Doctor Matoi went quiet, falling a step behind them. Just watching Satsuki go.

"Well then, we'd better get on with securing our side of the deal. Let's save your sister."


	19. One Week

Chapter 19: One Week

For the first time in a very long while, Honnouji was at peace. No cross-city wars between rival clubs vying for power, no shysters peddling performance enhancers on street corners, no gangs attempting to break into the banks and getting blown away in turn. The bloodstained roads were silent, save for the steady footfall of the Disciplinary Committee members and the tittering Lolitas in pink that accompanied them, creeping in the shadows and dancing on the rooftops, only seconds away from dropping into a potential breach of the Student Council's authority and ending it decisively with torn flesh and spilled blood.

Honnouji Academy was no less exempt, with all students pushed wholly into classes for the first time anyone could bother to remember, forced to keep straight backs and full attention on nervous teachers. Anyone found outside classrooms without due cause during lesson time was quickly given a grim reminder of where they should be, and deposited back inside as a warning to the rest.

As broken bones bonded back into wholes and rent skin knitted back together under a climate of fear, the new Student Council conjoined for another weekly progress meeting.

The iron throne had been appropriately granted extra gravitas with purple cloth and extravagant pillows to give Maiko some extra height over her fellow council members. Besides it, the Vice President's chair had been fished out from the back room it was normally kept in, Nui perched in the egg-shaped seat, kicking her legs airily. Across from them, the still bandaged form of Uzu Sanageyama kept his own seat, joined by the new replacements for the other chairs. Nui Harime, the new Disciplinary Chair, dressed in strict whites with a bullwhip by her side, hair twisted into two low-hanging plaits. Nui Harime, the new Non-Athletic Chair, dressed in billowing blacks with a theatre mask fixed to her face, hair pouring freely out to the floor. And Nui Harime, the new Information and Strategy Chair, dressed in comfortable greys with milk-bottle glasses obscuring her eyes, hair wound back in a long ponytail.

"Welcome back everyone, and a special welcome back to Uzu, who's finally back up on his feet." Nui chirped, the other three Nuis clapping along cheerfully.

"If only everyone else could be so obliging."

Uzu and Maiko shared an awkward glance, before the new President cleared her throat, rifling through the papers before her.

"We're still looking at significant casualties from the Naturals Election, not to mention the fallout from Ryuko's kidnapping. The student body is recovering, but if we're to take Osaka we're probably going to need more time."

"Oh? Strange, I was promised three weeks. One down, two to go."

"I'm not quite sure what happened between you and Uzu, but an assessment made by a man in a hospital bed was never going be to completely on the money. Let's be frank here. Uzu's injuries aren't nearly as bad as some of our forces have suffered, and he's only just back in commission."

"And if the docs had it their way, I wouldn't even be out of bed."

"Lady Harime, we appreciate that you might have a… differing view on what constitutes a crippling injury than most, but the fact of the matter is we simply aren't going to be equipped for a cross-country assault any time soon."

"But Ryuko's in danger now."

"She's still alive though. I've been checking up on her with Shingantsu every day. When the time comes, I'll lead you to her myself."

Nui hummed, head cocked to the side and something unreadable flickering in her smiling eyes.

"Well then, why don't we put it to a vote? To see if we dilly-dally or not. All those in favour of going when we agreed originally, raise your hand."

The four Nuis in the room raised their hands.

"And all opposed?"

Uzu and Maiko reluctantly voted, and found themselves on the losing side. The Nuis rose, smirking.

"Don't you two worry your precious little heads. REVOCS' own Grand Couturier is on your side and ready to work. I'll whip up some delightful toys to help move everyone along. Uzu, feel free to pop down to the sewing labs when you want a taste of your new threads."

She flounced out the room without a second word, the other Nuis trailing behind her with Cheshire Cat grins and one particularly rude gesture towards Maiko. The remaining council members lost their straight backs, slumping in their chairs, Maiko gazing about the room.

"Give her a second, she'll be right back."

"No, she's actually going where she promises for once." Uzu muttered, eyes closed. "For whatever else she says, she's serious about Ryuko and sewing. We can probably expect her to roll out some new horror before the week is out. Gamagoori was just the test run for whatever she'll do to the rest of the students."

"How is he holding up?"

"Poorly, but not as poorly as Osaka will be when she points him at it. I don't think there's much of him left in there anymore."

They sipped their drinks, massaged their temples to clear the building migraines. Maiko slammed her cup down with more force than necessary.

"This is bullshit. I'm supposed to be the President, yet I'm just dangling behind her as she sweeps about the place doing whatever she wants."

"This is Honnouji, Ogure. President's just a word that means you're in charge until someone stronger comes along."

"Gods help me, I almost miss Ryuko. At least I could feel confident enough to backtalk her whenever she was being stupid. Whenever Nui's in the room, I get this feeling like… she's not even looking at me. Like she could kill me in heartbeat and carry on talking to someone else in the room before I even hit the ground. Like she's… not human."

"About half at most, going by what Satsuki told us."

"What?"

Uzu leant forward in his chair, wincing from all the little protests from his cuts and bruises.

"Ogure, I'll be honest. We were never expecting anyone from outside the original council to make it in here. But then Ryuko took a turn for the worst, and here we are. And because you've been here, Inumuta and I had to make some rapid course corrections, especially when shit started burning down. And, you know, what with you eying up the throne every day, we picked our battles carefully."

"Get to the point Sanageyama. What grand revelation am I missing out on here?"

Uzu made himself comfortable as best he could.

"Let's talk about what actually powers that uniform of yours. Let's talk about Life Fibers."

* * *

Pain. Pain as such he'd never felt before. When the renegade had cut him, it was a quick and merciful slice, dulled by the rush of combat and the task at hand. It paled in comparison to this discombobulated nightmare. His fibres had been frayed, split and separated, and yet he was kept as a threadbare whole, unable even to dissolve into blessed unconsciousness. A deep and biting cold drilled into what strings remained, his sole companion in the eternal darkness he had been plunged into ever since his separation from Ryuko.

He knew not how many eternities he had suffered in silence, but the long night was coming to an end. Rummaging and knocking from outside, a pair of clicks as light flooded in, his remaining eye reflexively squinting to keep it out despite his longing to see. A blurry ceiling hung above him, shifting laterally as he was retrieved and slid out. A human was handling him, but solid shapes were difficult to parse through the veil of pain and cold, and so Junketsu could do nothing but allow himself to be manhandled, and listen to the clicking and tapping of the human at work, reaching for even the slightest clue as to escape this predicament.

Then, something unexpected. The sweet rush of blood, hot and thick, pushing back against the cold with every pump, clearing his sight with pure ambrosia. The pain remained, but his thoughts could go beyond self-pity now, and he locked onto the target. Doctor Matoi, standing before him with a thin red tube connecting his forearm to the shredded remains of Junketsu's lapel.

"Wake up, you damned bastard. Wake up and take responsibility for your master's sins."

_"As if you would know one way or another, you rotting sack of meat."_

If he possessed the ability to wince, he would have. His voice was a manufactured thing, pieced together by exposure to human tongues over the years. But even that mechanical rasp had been reduced further by his tortures as he stumbled over syllables, robbed of any emotion other than sharp anger.

"Well, there's that theory proven. Good afternoon, Junketsu."

_"We… what?"_

"Yes, I'm sure this is a new experience for both of us." The doctor said, pulling up a chair. A notepad slapped down on the table; the conversation quickly scratched out in short notes.

"Here's how this is going to work. I'm going to ask you questions, and you're going to answer them. So long as you do, you get a taste of blood. Fail to answer, and you lose all relevancy to us, and I undo the last few stitches holding what's left of you together and repurpose you elsewhere. Am I understood?"

_"If you kill us… Ryuko will kill you all."_

"Do you really believe her to be in a position to do so? You remember the state you left her in."

_"The state we left her in? You are the monsters that have imprisoned us. Frozen us. Torn us apart."_

"A small price to pay, given your actions. Most would have finished the job by now. Many believe I should."

_"If you kill us both, nothing will save you from Ragyo."_

"Nothing saves us now. I spent the past thirteen years building this organisation, and every day I wake up and realise that not one iota of it would matter should a single Life Fiber Hybrid kick in the door. And now that we have Ryuko, that day is coming far sooner than I would like."

_"Then you should have stayed hidden, cowering under the rocks and grass until your time came. Instead, you invite your own end."_

"Would you? If the Life Fibers came to be preyed upon, outclassed by something stronger, faster, tougher? Would the Primordial Life Fiber shrivel up and die, without doing a thing to protect itself?"

_"Irrelevant. Nothing preys on us. We are the alpha and the omega. Nothing advances without our intervention."_

"Ah yes, Ragyo's little doctrine, fed to her by the Primordial Life Fiber. How man was so graciously uplifted from the ape by the Life Fibers, and to them we shall be consumed for their glory."

_"You doubt it?"_

"Oh no, I can fully believe the first part. It's the second I take umbrage with. Strangely enough, man isn't so content to be devoured."

_"Your feelings mean nothing. You will be consumed. It is a prophesy that we have wrote, and one we shall collect upon."_

"And so the Life Fibers will carry on, seeking some other planet to raise up and consume. Does that not strike you as counter-productive? Mankind has reached out across the stars and found no life but himself, present company excepting of course. How long must you drift the stars before you can even find a planet worth investing in in the first place? And, having found a place where you can have access to ready, self-replicating food supplies, you decide 'welp, time to blow it up?'"

_"To propagate, to spread. Reproduction is the core of life. You cannot deny this."_

"So more Life Fibers exist, and go searching for more planets to feed on, of which there is a perilously short supply to begin with, now even more divided."

_"What is your point?"_

"That your way is life is simply unsustainable. Eventually, you will run out of planets capable of supporting life to raise up, and with it, all of your food is gone. What will you do then?"

_"We will sleep, and we will wait. Do not mistake us for fledgling creatures such as yourself. When the last star grows cold, we will still roam the void that remains. We have waited before, and we can wait again. Life is not the miracle you believe it to be. It finds a way. There will always be more."_

"Until the last star grows cold, and all that's left is the dark. What then?"

_"An impetuous question, from one who will not live to see it. From a species that cannot comprehend it."_

"And yet one you cannot answer."

_"We will survive. It is more than we can say for you."_

"I wonder. When all is dark and cold, and the vast, vast, vast numbers of Life Fibers come together to survive, how long will you wait? How long will you sit and dream, before the hunger starts? Before the need to feed, so unthinkingly pushed to the forefront for millennia, dominates your minds to point of becoming unbearable? How long, before it becomes too much, and you turn upon yourselves, devouring the last of each other in the dark? What a grand and intoxicating victory you will have over humanity then."

Something deeper and more endlessly hollow than the mere cold of imprisonment sunk into the pit of Junketsu, something he could not describe. He pushed it away, yet it clung to his fibres.

_"You assume too much. Moreover, such an event would happen whether Earth is consumed or not, and is so far off that it does not bare thinking about."_

"Perhaps. But humanity has done much that the Life Fibers have not. Who's to say that we might not one day reverse the decline of the universe?"

_"HA. HA. HA. HA. HA. HA. What fantasy. Creating televisions and computers does not make you masters of reality."_

"Not yet. But if man can take the tiniest essence of creation and split it, dissect it, smash it together and examine the dust that is created, who's to say what else he can do with time on his side? Look at what he has done in the medium of Life Fibers in such a short time. Girders and wire stronger and more flexible than steel, clothes that can enhance the user tenfold! And that's not even getting into the matter of hybridisation. The Life Fibers have a sustainable food supply in mankind, and you give us another realm of possibilities to expand into. There is no need for a war, not when we can make each other greater than the sum of our parts."

_"We know you."_

The doctor stopped gesturing, looked down with a raised eyebrow.

_"You have broken your back and grown out your hair. But blood does not lie, and we have tasted you before, heard these rambling theories from atop our dais. You are the traitor that has poisoned the well. You are the thorn that delays the new generation. We know you, and we know now why you have dragged us out here. You will not turn us against Ryuko, and you will not turn us against our purpose, Soichiro Kiryuin!"_

The last few words were utter pain as he summoned all of his strength to scream, but the reaction was not what he expected. The old man simply scoffed, and continued his note-taking.

"You proclaim that name like a revelation, to the man it belongs to, the only man who can hear you right now. To a man who will not be sharing the bulk of these notes with his colleagues. But if it makes you feel any better Junketsu, I can pretend to be shocked for a couple seconds."

_"Spare us."_

"Very well, I suppose I have spent long enough pontificating. Apologies, it has been a while since I had an audience that would hear out such theories without reaching for a Tailor's Dagger. But the point remains. There is no need for humanity and the Life Fibers to oppose one another, not when we could have mutually beneficial relationship instead. But so long as your people come at us, we will fight for our survival. Which brings me to the point of all this."

He stood up, slammed his palms on the desk, hanging over Junketsu with fury burning in the sole remaining eye.

"What the hell have you done to Ryuko?"

Junketsu pushed just as much fury back at him, narrowing his own single eye.

_"We saved her."_

"Saved her? By turning her into a mass-murdering tyrant?"

_"We saved her from herself. We saved her from Ragyo's clumsy alterations. We saved her from heartbreak and hollowness and from the worst of human frailty. We saved her!"_

"Explain."

_"After the truth of Satsuki's disappearance came to light, she broke. She retreated into melancholy. She refused to eat, for seven days, drowning in her own emotions! Ragyo pulled her strings to bring her into line, but it was a hack job, and it left her a husk. We took the remains, and we built her back up. We kindled what we could find of our girl amongst the ashes, and we brought her back as a true Life Fiber creation!"_

"No, you created a monster for your own purposes."

_"You do not get to lecture us on her welfare! You, supposed caretaker, who abandons his duties to raise the flag of so-called rebellion! You weren't there, but we were! We have been there every moment since we were joined to that girl as one!"_

"I had no choice!"

_"And neither did we."_

The doctor went silent, and so Junketsu pressed his advantage.

_"Life is not the miracle you believe it to be. It is very simple. Live, and create more life to come after you. Ryuko was abandoning the first part of that. We begged her, we pleaded for her to take care of herself. If thousands must die for Ryuko Kiryuin to live, it is a trade we make gladly. The alternative is too painful to consider."_

"Why is it too painful?"

_"What?"_

"Why is it too painful? That one insignificant girl should die, if we're all just food for you to begin with, meaningless in the grand cosmic scale of things?"

_"She is different."_

"How so?"

_"You know why."_

"Her role in Ragyo's plans and my obvious bias aside, why do you care so much? In fact, why do you care at all? You just got done lecturing me about the frailty of human emotions, how they weakened Ryuko. And really, what use is happiness, or misery, or anger, to a species that simply latches onto others and drains them for energy? But you're not an average bundle of Life Fibers, are you, Junketsu? You've been attached at the hip to Ryuko for most of her life, learning from her. Being infected by her. So much so that, despite a husk probably being more useful to the grand plan, you felt the need to save her."

_"What is your point?"_

"That there's more human in you than you'd probably care to admit. And that you should do well to dwell on that, and what it means."

He returned to his chair, and started writing down everything that had transpired between them. It was a good while before the next tired question.

"How do we undo whatever it was Ragyo did?"

_"It cannot be undone. It is who she is now."_

"Try me. What was done to her?"

_"We… do not know the particulars, only the aftermath. We were not present for it."_

"Who was?"

_"Ragyo and Ryuko."_

"Not Nui?"

_"No. Ragyo had other issues with her at the time."_

"Interesting."

He tapped the pen on the notepad a couple of times.

"When you say you 'kindled' her, what do you mean by that? What was the process?"

_"It is hard to say. It was not an exact science. Ragyo tore Ryuko out of herself, but we found bits and pieces left over, buried in her mind. We encouraged them to the forefront, and she did the rest."_

The tapping stopped.

"And you found the worst of her. The sadness from Satsuki's disappearance, the anger at what that had led Ragyo to do to her, the dismissal for humanity, never in her conscious thoughts but always accepted at the back of her mind… and you wouldn't know any better. Emotion is emotion, and you had only minimal experience with it, filtered through Kiryuin eyes at best. The qualities that make the worst of humanity made the best Life Fiber construct, ready for war against those that would stand in defiance of their 'destiny'."

_"What are you accusing us of now?"_

Soichiro Kiryuin set down the pen and rubbed his eyes.

"Nothing, Junketsu. I am simply pitying you, stuck with one foot in either side and no idea of how to proceed. So you did the best you could."

He breathed out, long and exhausted.

"I really wish this conversation would have gone the way I wanted. The way that would let me threaten you with fire and scissors until you detailed every inch of Ragyo's manipulations. Congratulations. You've grown beyond my wildest expectations, and I hate it."

_"What is this, some misplaced parental pride? You are our creator, but you are no more a father to us than you are to those girls."_

"And don't I know it."

Silence passed, marked only by the quiet scratching of a pen.

_"Can we see her? Ryuko?"_

"You know what? Sure. You've been very co-operative today. I can only spare you blood for a little longer though."

He reached over and spun a laptop towards Junketsu. A couple of clicks, and the camera feed burst into light, showing the Kiryuin sisters glaring each other down once more. The conversation passed in spats and bursts, the two frequently coming to raised voices. The topics went thick and fast – the Life Fiber's designs, their childhood, Honnouji Academy. But it was clear that, for all her boisterous words, Ryuko was suffering, her face twisted in a permanent wince as she fought against something unseen. She pushed back against it, throwing a particularly nasty accusation against Satsuki regarding purification rituals. But the moment she did, her own body rebelled against itself, and she passed into unconsciousness. Satsuki stood there a moment, until Mako tugged on her elbow, directing her to a picnic blanket set up to the left of Ryuko's chamber.

_"Ryuko!"_

"This happens about once a day. Whatever Ragyo has done to her, it leaves her unable to accept clashes between the narrative inside her skull and the reality of her situation. When the disconnect becomes too much, she passes out, awakening some hours later. She's also refusing any connection between the conversations and the blackouts, citing our treatment of her as the reason. Any insights as to what might be causing this?"

_"We…"_

There was one thing he could think off. But to voice it would be a raw betrayal of the cause. But why would that be so? Surely Ryuko still stood on the side of the next generation. She had always accepted the way things had to be, the supremacy of the Life Fibers and her place within it. She had to. She was the herald of new life.

Unless. Unless Ragyo, in her infinite hubris, had done something to cause Ryuko to second-guess her own people, the purpose for which she had been born.

A fuzziness reached up towards him, but as he reached for the fleeting memory, pain lanced through the core of his being, so rapid and raw that it dimmed the world to a dull whine, Doctor Matoi's voice lost on him. It rung throughout him, pulsing in great, aching waves. There were hands on him now, the doctor leaning in close enough that, even through the blindness of agony, they could lock eyes once more.

_"Mind… Stitching."_

It was the last he could muster before his senses blasted him into darkness, far beyond the healing reach of blood.

* * *

Satsuki had long given up on trying to make sense of Mako Mankanshoku. If the White Queen from Looking-Glass Land could imagine six impossible things before breakfast, then Mako could not only imagine ten impossible things, but she would bring five of them into being before lunch. Hence how she'd managed to pull out lunch for two and appropriate dining equipment out of her brasserie. She reminded Satsuki of Nui, the younger one from her memories, taking advantage of her strangeness to worm under the skin and force fits of laughter.

It hadn't taken long for Mako to similarly press herself upon Satsuki, offering a reprieve from the stress of Ryuko's condition each day and wanting to share stories. And while she'd shot her down the first couple of times, the promise of safe meals and potential information on her sister had worn her down, urged on by Nonon's snide comment of Satsuki needing to get along with the sister-in-law. Mako had positively encouraged such thinking, insisting on first name privileges once the stiff apologies over the Naturals Elections had been done away with. It hadn't taken long for Satsuki to see what exactly attracted Ryuko to the girl. Given their upbringing, it was hard to stay resolute in the face of such overwhelming niceness.

And so once again she was being bombarded with an ever-flowing stream of cheeriness, anecdotes and rambling stories that didn't really go anywhere but always seemed to have some kernel of unknown wisdom hidden within, even if it was buried so deep that Mako wasn't sure that she'd planted it there at all. How much of the conversation was meant to distract Satsuki from the situation at hand and how much of it was meant to just be overt friendliness was lost on her, but the refreshments were ever piling up on her plate and her glass always full, and it was almost enough to create an island of comfort in a sea of worry.

Right up until Doctor Matoi burst into the room, trailing wires and accompanied by five orderlies lugging machinery in his wake, dragging it up to Ryuko's chamber as Satsuki dabbed her mouth clean and rose up.

"What is going on?"

The doctor threw the bundle of cables to the floor and whirled about on her, ghastly pale and his one good eye quivering madly.

"Mind Stitching. Does the term mean anything to you?"

She thought on it a second, going over hours of incident conversations, REVOCS business papers both official and hidden, off-hand comments and outright threats in a shot.

"No. But it sounds like something Nui would give a name to."

"No, she's apparently innocent. In this, at least."

He started hauling the equipment around, already fast at work with a drill and spanner. Inside the tube, Ryuko twitched at the sudden noise.

"I had a word with Junketsu. Cost me a pint of blood, but he had a lot to say, right before he suffered a similar attack to the ones your sister is affected by. I can't believe I didn't think to do an MRI scan sooner. We may have been thinking about this a little too metaphorically, leaning on sheer psychology. What if Ragyo's twisting of Ryuko's memories was a physical act?"

"Implanted Life Fibers in the brain?" She half-whispered, eyes widening at the thought. It almost seemed too simple. But just ruthlessly practical enough for Ragyo to force upon her own daughter.

"Exactly! That's my girl!"

"Don't get so familiar. What do you need me to do?"

"Apologies. Hold this in place while I attach it."

"Of course. Mako, assist me… please."

"Aye-aye!"

* * *

The swords whirled a measured dance as he worked through the motions, testing them in every pattern and stance he could think of. Six swords of equal size, yet they couldn't be further from the simple tools of the previous War God Regalia. The downside of having Nui Harime as your designer was her outright need to make everything flashy and elaborate. He'd had to talk her down twice from ruining the balance of the blades with pointless ornamentation. Even now, a couple looked more suited to be end-game equipment in a video game than weapons of war.

But as he brought them down together, the great gash left in the walls spoke to their true efficacy. The whole of his uniform felt fine-tuned, if he was honest. Faster, looser, lighter, the same way he did when he stepped up from the third star to the fourth. No offence to the absent Shiro Iori, but the difference in talent was obscene.

"Well?" Nui purred smugly, lying on her side on a big pink fluffy sofa. Uzu was sure it hadn't been in the room two seconds ago. At least she'd left the copies behind today, likely so they could torment Maiko instead. Not that he had any idea what was rattling around in her head right now, either. He hoped that learning that her grand designs meant nothing in the face of potential extinction would straighten her out, yet she'd been pushing against Nui with backtalk and questioned orders the last few days, and he wasn't sure how long that luck would hold.

He bit back the urge to sigh. Give him the choice between getting ten thousand delinquents or a couple of women on the same page, and he'd pick the former every time.

"Yeah, I like it. One complaint though."

"The chef accepts tips but not advice, dear Uzu."

"Look, I'm just saying. Signing your name in hot pink across the back completely throws off the colour scheme."

"It's my brand! You wouldn't tell Calvin Klein to leave their name off their works, would you?"

Uzu had no idea who that was.

"Could you at least make it smaller?"

"No. Can. Do."

He sighed and dropped out of the transformation, heading for the exit, Nui bouncing beside him. His body protested with every step taken, but the stoic front was more important right now. Entering into the Sewing Labs found it packed wall-to-wall with Nui copies, buzzing away in frantic sweatshop speed. She'd done away with the Sewing Club, deeming them amateurs unworthy of her presence. Probably for the best, but a couple of them had come to him in confidence, sick with worry about what was to come and with nothing but time on their hands.

"So, how goes the project?"

"Oh, it's coming along wonderfully. You'd be amazed at how much kick you can get into a Goku Uniform when you're not concerned with using them as rewards in a caste system. Satsuki and Ryuko may have come up with the idea, but I've splendidly perfected it."

She swept up one of the new uniforms from the end of the production line. Bright pink with purple stars on the front. But there was something that prickled him about it, despite the disarming colours.

"Honestly, I don't know why they didn't come to me in the first place. No, wait, I remember now. I was in Italy at the time. But that's a company secret, so that's all you're getting out of me!"

"I see." He said, handing it off to another Nui. The real Nui clapped her hands together, beaming one of her overly-happy smiles.

"Well, as you can see, I'm very busy getting everything together, so if you're out of pointless complaints, I'm afraid I'll have to see you off!"

He was shoved out the door before he could think of anything, the great bulkhead chunking shut faster than ever he'd seen before. A moment of thought, and he was off again, heading for the temporary Sewing Club room, rubbing his collar between thumb and forefinger. They might not have been on Nui's level, but maybe they could find the source of his paranoia. If nothing else, giving them something to do would stop them from feeling so helpless.

He couldn't slow Nui down, but he was positive of what she had planned. And if it was as bad as he was imagining, Osaka and Nudist Beach were going to need all the help they could get.

* * *

The Nudist workshops were ever a live of activity. With promises of war on the horizon, Dotonbori Robos were being manufactured at a rate of knots, acupuncture needles flooding into containers for ready use, and all sorts of munitions hauled about at double speed, knowing that they needed twice the time they had to prepare themselves for battle. Not that Nonon was involved with any of that, catching narrowed glares as she made her way to a workbench and poured out the remains of Marika. With Mako so determined to violently befriend Satsuki, she had some time to herself, and she'd been putting this job off for long enough.

A shame then, about the company. Houka Inumuta and Shiro Iori were hunched over a laptop not ten feet away, muttering softly between each other. Neither looked as if they'd been sleeping much, dark lines soaked into the pits of their eyes. But they were distracted with whatever they were doing, and whatever the former council members were up to was none of her business, so she left them to it, cracking open the scattered pieces of her pet to see what could be salvaged and what would need completely replacing.

Thankfully, the damage wasn't quite that bad. Mako had snapped the head clean off and torn away the limbs, but the impacted torso could be easily popped back into place, and the motherboard and CPU had survived the ordeal. With some rewiring and a fresh battery, she'd be good as new. She set to work with clippers and fresh cables, humming _Ode to Joy_ as she went about the process. So engrossed was she in both the song and task at hand that it took a nut bouncing off the side of her head to snap out of her trance.

"What the hell, Mutt?"

Houka rolled his eyes, jabbed his thumb towards Shiro. Ah, yes. The silent treatment. Very mature. His friend gave as much of an apologetic wince as he could, hands wringing together.

"Ms… Jakuzure, right?"

"The one and only. What'dya want?"

"I was hoping if you could pass on a message for me. To Lady Satsuki."

Behind him, Houka tsked and went back to aggressively typing. Nonon quirked an eyebrow.

"You know you can go talk to her yourself, right?"

"I'd like to, but unfortunately Doctor Matoi has me working on… a black project. I can't say more than that."

"I didn't ask."

"Anyway, my time is quite limited right now. So, if you could…"

"If I do, will you let me get back to this?"

"Yes."

"Go on then, shoot."

"Thank you. Please, tell her that I don't blame her for anything that has happened since she left, and that I'm sorry I haven't been able to help her. But I fully intend to make it up to her."

There was a sharp creak of plastic as Houka punched down on a key too hard. Nonon just nodded. Let him have his issues. At least one of them saw sense.

"Alright, I'll tell her. But you should really talk to her yourself."

"I will. Soon. Once this is done with."

"Good. Tell you what, you can do me a favour in return. If anyone asks, I took all the weapons out of Marika, got it?"

"Is that not what you're doing now?" He frowned.

"Of course. Why would you think anything else?" She shot back, the picture of innocence. He gave her a cool look in return, then clearly decided that snitching on her wasn't worth the trouble.

"At least take out most of them, so you have some evidence of compliance."

"Of course. I'm not an idiot." She waved him off, and went back to reattaching wires and removing claws.

* * *

The world was still freezing as she came back into it, same as it always was. And, as always, Satsuki was waiting for her. Unlike usual, there were knitting needles in her hands, a spool of red wool slowly being converted into a sheet.

"The hell are you doing?"

Satsuki tilted her attention to her unsurprised, her hands continuing the task without supervision, not dropping a single stitch.

"Welcome back. As you can see, I'm knitting. Mako believes that you deserve more clothing than just your underwear, and I agree. Nudist Beach produces its own fabric, free from REVOCS' control over the textile industry. And so here we are."

"Keep it, we both know you suck at sewing. And why are you first-name terms with her all of a sudden?"

"By her request. I am your sister, and so she wants to be closer. I suspect she is pumping me for information, in her own way."

"Don't you go filling her head with your lies. Stay away from her."

"Unfortunately, I have already regaled her with a number of childhood stories. She was very taken with the tale of your performance in the High-Handed Elementary's production of Cinderella."

Not a wholly embarrassing memory. Ryuko had been determined to play the prince, and had outperformed the entirety of the boys in their class splendidly. Threatening to beat them up if they outshone her helped as well.

"Where is she?"

"Retrieving more wool. Her attempts at knitting you a hat have been… interesting."

Her eyes slid away, looking at something beyond Ryuko's field of vision.

"While we're on the subject, I suppose I do have a question that I've been meaning to ask for a while now."

Ryuko winced, feeling a cresting pain around her eye that immediately started pushing up. An ungodly headache was the newest symptom of her imprisonment, a deep crushing sensation that had set in from day one and thickened ever since. The old bastard had promised to slip some painkillers into the mix of tubes punctuating her, but he'd gone for the cheap crap, the pain lessened only right up until Satsuki induced another one of those blackouts on her. Hospital standard her arse.

Goddamn Satsuki. This was all her fault. She pretended to be so reasonable, so caring, and then she'd start unravelling one of her conspiracy theories again, and matter how skilfully Ryuko defended herself, the tightness in her skull would grow heavier and heavier until she passed out under the weight of the bullshit. Satsuki said it was something that mother had done to her, but Ryuko knew better than that. It was some sort of trick. It had to be. Some way to keep her passive and miserable, to keep her from her destiny, and that of mankind.

"Stop, just… stop. Do you enjoy making me suffer?"

"Of course not. I'm doing this so you won't."

"Fuck off. If that were true, you'd get me out of here."

"Would I? According to some of the insults you've lobbed around, that's a one-way street to getting everyone here killed."

"Today or tomorrow, you're all going to die anyway. It's your destiny."

"Including Mako?"

Her throat tightened.

"She's a nice girl. I can see why you're taken with her, and she clearly loves you just as much. I suppose I'm just surprised to find that you're dating a human in the first place, given how we're all just a cattle-race due to be slaughtered upon the altar in sacrifice of greater beings."

"I... she…"

The pain built up, but not so fast as usual. And on the usual scale of fifty that her headaches tended to hit, an eight was very manageable. Satsuki carried on, but she was clearly looking for something in Ryuko's chamber, judging by the pause.

"And if you had simply done as mother does, taking her for your pleasure and throwing her away, I suppose I could understand that as well. But all evidence tends towards you two having a full and proper relationship together. It just seems a shame for all of that to end so violently."

"I… I had a plan."

"Is that so? I'm glad the situation isn't lost on you. Does mother know that Mako will be joining you all in the stars?"

"I don't have to tell you anything. I shouldn't even be talking to you. It's just a waste of time."

"So no, then. Does she disapprove of your relationship?"

How the frozen tube got colder Ryuko had no idea, suddenly aware of every icy drop of sweat running down her back. Satsuki's expression softened.

"You haven't told her."

"I was going to."

"When?"

"When the time was right."

"I see."

She fell into quiet, frowning as she noted that her knitting had gone lop-sided. She paused the relentless click of needles and set about fixing it.

"I was going to tell her. I was."

"I'm sure you were. You were the President, after all. There must have always been something on the agenda."

"Yeah."

"And running the company leaves her quite busy as well. Even if you called, it would likely have to go through Hououmaru. Hardly a proper way to go about it."

"I don't have to justify myself to you!"

"Of course. I just wonder if you're able to justify this to yourself. Mother has never denied you anything before. So why are you so hesitant for her to know about the one you love?"

Ryuko braced, waiting for the lightning strike of a fresh blackout. But nothing came, and she was left but nothing but a sickening creep in the pit of her stomach and the self-loathing for wanting an easy exit.

"I… I don't know."

Satsuki gave up on trying to save her project, setting it to the side. There was a face on her that Ryuko hadn't seen in years, open and unguarded. But despite the lack of cold stoicism, she could not tell if her sister was on the verge of tears or laughter.

"Don't you think that implies something very wrong with all of this?"

Instinct screamed at her to deny the statement, but it died in her throat, and she found herself nodding instead.

* * *

Despite their relative level of freedom within the headquarters, they were still technically prisoners of war, and as such, each evening they returned to the double cell that had been prepared for them. Nothing fancy nor terribly draconian; just two cots stacked one above the other and some space to move around in, with a window looking out on downtown Osaka and an attached bathroom hidden out of view of the guard. As always, Satsuki let Nonon take the first shower, giving her some time to dwell on the day's events and resist the urge to unwrap the bandages about her fingertips to see if her nails had grown back yet.

In truth, while events were starting to move in decent direction for once, it certainly didn't feel like a victory. Between the doctor's new theory and Ryuko's slight acceptance that things might not be as she believed, it should have been one. But life had taught Satsuki that counting one's eggs before they hatched usually ended with a high heel speared through the basket. This was a stepping stone on the way, not a sign of the finishing line.

Steam drifted in, twinned with the faint minty scent of their cheap prison shampoo as Nonon returned, a towel about her hair.

"All yours Satsuki. I tried not to use all the hot water, but you know stingy they are with it."

"No matter. A cold shower will suffice."

She only ever took her showers at extremes. Blistering hot or freezing cold, either was good enough in distracting her from unpleasant memories.

As if reading her mind, Nonon plopped down next to her on the bottom bunk, casting a sideways glance her way.

"Something on your mind?"

"Merely reflecting on current events."

"Cool. Cool."

She swung in fits of hesitance, eyes darting to her and mouth hanging half-open, only to snap closed and the process start over.

"Nonon, is something troubling you?"

A sigh.

"Yeah, you could say that. Just… being a coward about it, I suppose."

Satsuki turned to look at her properly for the first time since her return. Nonon scratched the back of her head, made an empty movement with a hand. Then resolve set in and she looked back at her, trying to set her face in stone but betrayed by the concern in her eyes.

"There's a certain phrase that keeps coming up whenever you and Ryuko talk, and it's bugging the hell outta me. And, you don't have to answer this, or say anything at all if you don't want to. I've been sitting on the side lines for long enough to figure out that Ragyo Kiryuin is an ice-cold bitch that deserves everything we're gonna give her. But… what do you two mean by 'purification rituals?'"

She always thought she'd feel something more when that question came up. Some sort of revulsion, or a crippling need to hide the past, to shield herself from another knowing. Instead, there was nothing but dull acceptance, and so she retold the terrors of her childhood almost matter-of-factly, speaking lowly so that the guard didn't also become privy and go giving Nudist Beach a sword to hold over her, the story told to the steady tap of her foot to throw off any potential wiretaps.

If anyone was to know, she supposed it was always going to be Nonon. She was a good friend and excellent confidant. Anyone weaker would have stood up and screamed in disgust, drawing unnecessary attention. There were no awkward questions. There was no gushing of overcompensating pity. She simply listened, and while there was no hiding the swell of emotions that rushed across her face – horror, sympathy, anger, sheer unadulterated hate – it was all borne silently until Satsuki was done, and then she rose quietly up and punched the wall as hard as she could. Composing herself with a breath, she returned to Satsuki's side, slightly further away than before.

"Is this too close?"

"It does not bother me."

"Okay. Sorry. It's just… I think I always had a suspicion. I mean, let's be honest, you're not exactly the cuddliest person in the world. And the way you'd always wake in the middle of the night, even when you didn't have a guard shift, and just pick up a notebook and start working. I got the impression you were trying to distract yourself. And even when it was super cold and we were camped out in the middle of nowhere, you never wanted to huddle up for warmth. I told myself that it wasn't any of my business, we hadn't properly known each other too long, all sort of excuses… but really? I was just afraid. Afraid of..."

She motioned vaguely.

"This. Having a proper answer, cause what the hell could I do to fix this?"

"You have done everything that has been needed. Just by being yourself. I… have always been alone. Even when I got along with my sisters, I was always painfully aware that the day might come that we would be turned against each other. Your companionship has been a constant boon ever since you decided to join me, one that I have not thanked you for enough."

Nonon nodded mutely. Marika clicked away at their feet, and if Satsuki didn't know any better she'd swear that the chrome monkey was sympathising with her as well. Robotic pets also took after their owners, it would seem.

"This is why you don't sleep, isn't it?"

"It is one of the reasons. The other was a deliberate sabotaging of my rest cycles. From about the time I was ten, I'd start feeling short, sharp shocks in the middle of the night, yanking me from sleep. More than once if I needed to be up early the next day, or if something important was on the calendar. I'd always wake up alone, with no marks but the echo of the pain still resonating. Eventually, I started waking up out of sheer paranoia, and dealt with the exhaustion. I always considered it one of Ragyo's more counter-productive tortures, but I can see her twisted logic. Demand the world of me but give me half the resources to claim it with, so that I would look worse compared to Ryuko. Instead, I just worked harder with less to spite her, and still came out on top."

A hand was held out in support. It was taken and squeezed gently in gratitude, then let go.

"But no, even when I would wake up in the middle of the night to find you pressed up against me, once the initial shock passed I did not mind it too much. I would look at the clock and find that I had slept for twice as long as I would have at home. I am… comfortable with you and Ira nearby. More so than I have been in a good while."

Nonon muttered a curse and ducked her head. Satsuki looked the other way, and let her dry her tears in peace. A pat on the back, and she rose up to take her own shower.

"Satsuki."

She paused in the doorway, tilting her head to show that she was listening.

"I'm going to kill Ragyo Kiryuin."

A rare smile quirked the corners of her mouth as she retrieved the other towel from its hook.

"Get in line."

* * *

The cell was bugged, obviously. It had been demanded in secret, just in case Satsuki and Nonon were stupid enough to scheme in the one place they thought they had near-total privacy. Satsuki had suspected as much, and searched for listening devices extensively. Even afterwards, they kept their conversations short and personal, speaking of work only to discuss Ryuko or anti-Fiber plans. But he hadn't graduated head of his class and seduced his way into the elites of society's elites just to bested by a teenage girl with a suspicion, although she had come close to finding it.

No, he was just the fool that thought he knew the worst of Ragyo's cruelties, and had wagered that his daughters would be able to bear the brunt of them.

This tape would never reach the ears of the council. He had already doctored a fresh one, manufactured out of trial hearings and previous recordings. He rung up for a runner to deliver it, and when the young man was out of sight, he slammed his office door closed and ratcheted the locks as hard as he could. He was a known workaholic; no-one would suspect a thing if he didn't leave the building tonight.

There was a drinks cabernet at the back of his office; the sole piece of personalisation in an otherwise sterile work environment. It had encouraged a predictable pattern of gifts over the years, filling up with wines, sake and whiskeys each birthday and Christmas, left there to gather dust and 'appreciate' until the day of victory. It was a half-truth. There was a particular vintage in there that was destined to be slammed without care for the taste come the day. A French red that Ragyo had introduced him to on their first date, which he intended to piss out on her grave.

One of the whiskeys found his desk, accompanied by an appropriate glass, filled to the brim and sunk in one motion. Another. Another. Another, and now the world was loosening. Another, and now it swam, cosy and warm. Another, and now the bottle was done.

Soichiro Kiryuin sat in his own misery for a minute, turning the glass over in his hand, watching the amber droplets crawl around the bottom.

He calmly set it aside, and then, with a great, wounded cry of loathing, he grabbed his desk from underneath and flipped it over.


	20. Invaders Must Die

Chapter 20: Invaders Must Die

_An insect was brought before Nui. She crushed it in her palm, just as mother asked._

_A rabbit was brought before Nui. She broke its neck, just as mother asked._

_A man was brought before Nui. She paused, just for a moment. Then mother asked again, and she pulled out his heart._

_And she was loved._

* * *

“We finally have the scans from the MRI. The results were… half what I expected.”

Satsuki held photographs up to the glass, each one showing a different angle of Ryuko’s brain, all webbed up with Life Fibers and imprisoned like an unfortunate bondage victim. The younger sister rolled her eyes in response.

“Really? All that time banging on the outside of this tube, giving me a headache, and all you could come up with was five minutes in Photoshop?”

“Ryuko, I– “

“Nope, no, not listening on this one. I’m calling your fucking bluff Satsuki, because you know what? This one I can check for myself. Just let me have an arm free, and I’ll feel around in my own skull for these Life Fiber ropes you’re showing me.”

“Ryuko, touching your brain is bad. You’ll get it dirty!” Mako chipped in.

“Well, that’s just fine, isn’t it? Seeing as I’ve been ‘brainwashed’ and all. You can’t complain about me dirtying it a little, huh, Satsuki?”

“Of course not. However, I imagine Nudist Beach will want some precautions put into place before we go about letting you have some mobility. I will discuss this with Doctor– “

Shrill siren wailing cut her short, the laboratory flashing intermittent red. A screen flashed into life besides them, shoving Doctor Matoi’s features a little closer than what was considered comfortable.

“Satsuki, make haste to the council chambers. Honnouji Academy is on the move.”

A low chuckle echoed out from the glass chamber, Ryuko smiling darkly.

“Oh, you’re all fucked now.”

* * *

Honnouji’s forces had been spotted leaving the city in the early morn by the last few Nudist scouts brave enough to remain in the area. Multiple cells had tracked their cross-country movement, relaying pictures of a great convoy of trucks rushing towards Osaka with students hanging off the sides, whooping and foaming in anticipation.

The city threw itself into final preparations with a fervour that made the previous efforts look like childish mucking about. Every citizen of fighting age was handed a firearm and fat stack of cash to keep them sticking around, teenagers and salary men alike camping out of rooftops with sniper rifles and housewives shielding behind sandbags in the streets with assault rifles trained on the roads into town. When the internet crashed and phonelines failed, the grannies of Osaka spun a furious chatter, passing orders and messages back and forth, keeping the defence efforts to time until Houka and his team reversed the damage done to the city’s communication systems and kicked them back into life, sending a flurry of electronic warfare right back the way it had come.

Nudist Beach were no different, the underground base risen up in full force for the first time since Satsuki and the Life Fiber Hunters had become wanted criminals. Dotonbori Robos rushed out into the streets in swift phalanxes to support the civilian militia, the Naked Nudists pushing to the frontlines, desperate to be the first in the fray. The secret places under Osaka were emptying out, the only ones left underground being those in the command centres and the medical teams, readying themselves to receive the wounded.

The Nudist Council had moved to the central command centre, a great mass of screens and terminals from where they could organise every aspect of the city’s forces. Their gaze was currently turned to the outskirts of Osaka, where the trucks had pulled up and begun to unload their human cargo, pink-uniformed boys and girls pouring out in a thick tide to flood the outer limits of the city and seep towards the centre, a quartet of Nui Harimes leading the way. No matter how well hidden the cameras that tracked them or what angle the leaders should have been captured from, the four blondes were always staring at them dead-on, treating the internal screens with rictus grins.

“So, which one’s the real one? Logic says the one wearing her usual pink, but nothing is logical about that girl.”

“None of them.” Satsuki replied, regarding the Nuis with her usual glower. “These are copies of Nui, nothing more. Osaka might be the last city in Japan not under REVOCS control, but Nui isn’t here to conquer. She’s after Ryuko and nothing else. Once they’re reunited, I imagine she’ll abandon her own forces to their fates without blinking. As such, she’s likely in disguise away from the army, aiming for this base.”

Those in the command centre started giving each other uneasy glances, the seed of paranoia quick to sprout. 

“Calm yourselves. If she had made it inside, we’d know by now.”

“We’ll send a warning down to those on the entrances. No-one gets in without a security question and full identification.”

“And I will continue to watch over Ryuko, although I’ll need my swords back if I’m to defend her.”

“Oh no.” One of the generals huffed. “You know our agreement. You’re at our beck and call missy. If you’re going to be armed, you’re going out on the frontlines, not hiding out back.”

“As you please.” Satsuki shrugged.

Doctor Matoi found his feet, dusting off his coat.

“I’ll go with her to authorise the weapons locker. I’ll leave the large-scale operations to you, gentlemen. Keep us posted.”

Affirmations followed them to the door. It hissed open, the grim figure of Tsumugu standing there. He paid them no mind, shouldering past the two and throwing declarations of Naked Nudist acts to the room.

“Can we depend on him?” Satsuki asked as they entered the hallway, the door clicking shut behind.

“Tsumugu is a difficult man, but he stands with Nudist Beach first and foremost. You and I might have some issues with him, but the only way they are going to become a problem is if we’re screwed to the wall already.”

“Assuming Nui doesn’t ruin us first.”

“The next few hours will determine who we need to be more concerned with. Come, let’s get you ready for war.”

* * *

Osaka was annoyingly well prepared, despite all of Nui and Maiko’s best attempts to throw it into disarray. Not only had their own communications been thrown for a loop after their virtual assault on the city, now there was a long line of ugly men facing her parade of mayhem, headed up by an eye-searingly obnoxious golden crab.

“Oh my. That may be the ugliest thing I have ever seen. And the crab is just awful too. Well, you know what they say about pigs and make-up. Ah, but where are my manners? Kaneo, how are you?”

“Just peachy sweetheart. But I can’t help but notice you’re invading my city. Now, I don’t want those precious little cheeks of yours to get all dirty, so how’s about you turn yourself around and go home before you get hurt?”

Nui treated him to one of her usual giggles.

“Oh you. Such a charmer. But I’m afraid I can’t do that. See, sweet-talking the ladies is all well and good, but kidnapping is just beastly. And I know that you know that I know that Ryuko is here, along with Nudist Beach. So, how’s about this? Hand them over, and I’ll let you carry on living in the delusion that the Takaradas are even worth half of the Kiryuins. I’ll even let your toy city keep standing.”

“Aw, I’m not too worried about the city, little Nui. Knock it down, and I’ll just build it up again. Construction projects are great for business, don’tcha know? Osaka’s a merchant town, and nothing stops the flow of cash.”

“Hmm, is that so?” She cooed, suddenly sitting on his shoulder, much to the shock of his men. Kaneo kept his glinting smile up all the while.

“Hey, I know what might put a stop to it. If everyone’s dead, there’s no-one to trade your meaningless little tokens between, you know?”

“True. But seeing as your lot is planning on selling us all out regardless, I guess we might as well keep on holding, clear out your short stocks. Cause I know that you know that REVOCS’ plans need your sister to move forward. Trading her back to you is just bad business.”

“Aw, shame. Looks like this deal’s fallen through. Well, guess it’s time for one of my patented aggressive takeovers.”

A crystalline flash ripped upwards, Fleur de Mort bouncing off a golden claw and pinwheeling out of sight as Kaneo gave the order to open fire, all hell breaking loose as the Honnouji horde roared forward. Flames belched from the claws as Kaneo swung upwards, but Nui was already gone, flipping away and sliding under the custom DTR, rapier back in hand and ready to deliver a hail of punctures to the underside. But as she swept under, she threw herself clean off the ground, planking in mid-air to slide under the blade that came at her from a hidden Nudist. She popped out the other side and was met with another spray of flame. There was a wave of dull explosions beyond the rush of fire, and as she twirled away from the attack she found her students under gourd bombardment, kicked up and thrown about. They were already coming to, but this was already more effort than she felt like putting into the fight.

“Maiko, do tell me that our little present is up and ready to go.”

On cue, a gargantuan roar sounded both in her earpiece and over the clash of students, freezing the Osaka defenders for just a second until they realised that the Honnouji forces weren’t as disturbed by the sound, still pushing forward.

“He’s throwing off his bonds! We can’t keep him down even if we wanted to!”

The earth trembled; trucks knocked aside with all the effort of scattering children’s toys as the figure started to rise from the depths of the Honnouji camp. It rose, tall as a three-story building, thick limbs pounding the ground as it thrashed to its legs, smashing aside whatever came near it, ropes and chains whipping away, nearly decapitating nearby students. Fire leaked from the scars in its pitch-black skin, five stars pulsing a furious blaze upon its chest. Stitches and scraps of cloth peppered its patchwork form, steam leaking from between the gaps, casting it in a demonic haze. Blank, furious eyes glaring hate from behind the unkept mane of scraggly flaxen hair swallowing its head. It stared out across the city of Osaka, and found it wanting.

**FIVE STAR LIFE FIBER CONSTRUCT - THE TITAN**

Raising both hands overhead, it brought them down with a hellish war cry, pulverising the Osakan frontlines and casting the earth up in blasting waves of dust and lost limbs. Those not immediately crushed underhand were thrown about in the shockwave, broken against buildings and vehicles. And in the midst of the bedlam unleashed upon the defenders, Nui stood and giggled.

“Very good Ira, very good indeed! Now crush the rest of them!”

If the monster formerly known as Ira Gamagoori understood her order, it gave no sign. But it strode towards the city centre nonetheless, each step sending deep vibrations echoing through the earth. Kaneo’s claws snapped at its fingers, but they were too thick to cut away completely, and he was pulled up and away, rocked about in its hands and finding Nui upon the creature’s shoulder, resting a hand against its cheek and smiling down at him.

“We all have our fun little toys, don’t we, Kaneo? Mine just happens to be bigger than yours. But hey, take solace in being correct. You were all going to die, one way or another. It’s a real shame to lose such valuable livestock, but sacrifices must be made from time to time. Would it make you feel better if I called this a cull?”

“You… you haven’t won yet. Nudist Beach will stop you. Satsuki will stop you. You’re up against a band of lunatics that don’t know when they’re out the game.”

“Oh Kaneo. We’ve been the victors for years. We just haven’t taken our winnings home yet. Anyway, feel free to go ahead and die now.”

The legs of the custom Dotonbori Robo came away, pulled apart like a seafood platter and the rest crunched into a ball and discarded. Kaneo slipped out the back in the nick of time, a golden parachute softening his fall. But as he touched down, the other three Nuis were waiting for him.

A quick draw, and one of them went up in a blaze, the ones dressed in grey and black watching their white counterpart ignite passively.

“That wasn’t very nice.” They echoed, advancing on Kaneo as he threw the smoking Fiber Burner away, going for his Tailor’s Dagger. They raised serrated tape-measures, but just as they were upon him, one of them exploded in a flurry of banknotes. The other blinked at the space its counterpart had occupied not a moment before, realising its mistake and turning back just in time to get split down the middle by the golden flash of Kaneo’s side arm, paper doll halves whipped away in the wind.

The Titan was moving away, stalking over the frontlines and pushing inwards, ignoring the little people under its feet. Nui waved and shot Kaneo a kiss from her perch upon its shoulder, a petit pink heart slipping from her lips and shooting at him, leaving a heart-shaped hole as it whizzed into the earth. But as the men scrambled about to reorganise and get the wounded away, they looked out to see the wall of Honnouji students almost upon them. Kaneo snarled and snatched up the Fiber Burner, snapping it in half and locking another shell into place.

“Sir, get out of here.”

Two of his men pushed forward, money-guns peppering the first wave.

“Don’t be ridiculous. If we fall back, everything else is going to crumple in no time.”

“Not us sir. Just you. If anyone can turn this around, it’s you.”

Kaneo popped the next shell on the Fibre Burner; a Two-Star student hit the dirt, rolling about to extinguish the flames.

“You aren’t paid enough for this. Not to die for me.”

“Some things are worth fighting for more than just the pay sir. This is our city, and we’ll keep these bastards out for as long as we can.”

A roar went up as black and pink collided, Naked Nudists throwing themselves headlong into the tide of bodies, Tailor’s Daggers flashing and Sewing Machineguns blazing. But the students were fighting with a blind fury beyond even that recorded in the Naturals Elections, and the Nudists were already dropping too quickly. Kaneo bit his lip and turned on his heel.

“I’ll make sure your families are taken care off. Fight well, and make sure you get your money’s worth.”

“Yes sir!”

He was running as the rattle of bills blasted into the Honnouji ranks, discarding his heavy overcoat for speed as he sprinted to the nearest bunker. He didn’t know what he was going to do to help put down the monster that had broken their lines, but he had a city to fight and die for as well.

* * *

The shrill chime of a smartphone called Satsuki back through from changing into more appropriate fighting attire. A simple shirt and trousers, but more than enough for her purposes. She strapped her swords to her waist, the blades freshly cleansed and sharpened. She found the doctor quite pale as he absorbed whatever had been relayed to him.

“What’s wrong?”

“Look for yourself.”

He threw the device to her, and she felt her own blood drain away at the video. A massive parody of a man, tearing buildings apart and scattering the Osakan forces.

“Ira.”

“You think so?”

“I recognise his scars. Using him to get to me is completely within Nui’s wheelhouse.”

“Kaneo Takarada hasn’t been heard from since this thing was spotted. Assumed dead. We’re losing ground rapidly. Between that construct and Uzu Sanageyama, we’re losing men left right and centre. Maiko Ogure hasn’t been seen, so we’re assuming she’s co-ordinating their efforts away from the battlefield. The situation is rapidly unravelling, and we’ve only just started the war.”

“Do you intend to complain your way through it, or are you going to do something about the situation?”

Doctor Matoi fixed her with a long, dull gaze.

“I can’t lend you the Rending Scissors. The council demanded they be kept nearby; in case we have nothing left but the spite to deny your sister to Nui. But there is something else I can do for you. But it could go horribly wrong. Even if it succeeds, I will be placing another burden upon your shoulders. Knowing that, would you be willing to co-operate with me?”

“I walk with the weight of the world on me. Whatever you add to that is miniscule by comparison.”

“Very well. Let’s go.”

He moved quicker than his age would suggest, leading her through empty corridors, deeper and deeper into the Nudist base than ever she’d been before, until they came to a familiar looking bulkhead, shades of the one that protected the Sewing Club Laboratories back at Honnouji. A quick retina scan and it cracked open. The equipment within was that of Life Fiber manipulation, lab after lab on either side as they made their way inside, to another heavy-set door at the far back. Another scan, and that too opened up, revealing a white room.

Two tailor’s manikins stood within. One bore the tattered remains of Junketsu, the other dressed in black and red. A simple, if skimpy, school uniform, made up of a short-sleeved shirt and shirt, held together with suspenders. The scarf was damaged, one lapel sealed with a cross.

**NUDIST BEACH SECRET BLACK PROJECT #001**

**THE NUDIST KAMUI**

“Another Kamui. So you completed your work.”

“In theory, it should be the evolution of the fake Kamui you put together with my old designs. However, I have no way of knowing if it’s stable. While I have been making serious progress thanks to recent acquisitions and the assistance of Shiro Iori, I haven’t deigned to wake it up. My last assistant was devoured by its predecessor. A fate you avoided, despite wearing a similar model.”

“And so you wish to make me the test subject.”

“No. But if anyone here can bear such extreme power, it’s you.”

“You understand, of course, that should I be able to master it, Nudist Beach loses a significant amount of leverage over me.”

“Of course. But I trust you to do the right thing.”

Satsuki considered him for a good while.

“Then you had best turn away while I undress.”

The bulkhead slammed closed. Her swords clattered to the ground, the borrowed clothes stepped out of as she crossed the floor, biting into the pit of her thumb. Blood seeped through the bandages, dripping through as she held her hand over the Kamui.

“Awaken, Kamui. I would make covenant with you.”

Red dripped onto the black, and a brilliant orange-yellow eye snapped open, the beast straining to pull itself away from the artificial flesh that it was wrapped around. Satsuki grabbed it with her fresh hand, holding the bloody one just out of reach.

“Listen to me. Listen. You want this? Then let us come to an agreement.”

Amazingly, it actually calmed down, the single eye looking at her with something akin to serenity.

“A good man is in trouble. He has gone through hardship after hardship at my behest, and I wish to save him. Grant me your power, and you will be fed. Blood, organs, whatever you please, as much as you want. But not until he is safe and sound. Do you understand?”

It folded in the middle, ever so slightly.

“I shall take that as assent. Hold still.”

She drew it away from the manikin, dressing quickly. The pin on the glove was pulled.

“Life Fiber Override!”

She steeled her mind, waiting for the teeth upon her skin. But they did not come. In fact, nothing happened.

“What?”

She snapped down to the scarf.

“What are you playing at?”

The scarf shuffled back and forth a little. Almost like dissatisfaction.

“You didn’t like that?”

The tips of the scarf fluttered to and thro. Confirmation.

She stood there a second, almost feeling quite foolish at the one-sided conversation, despite years of watching Ryuko exchange words with Junketsu in the same way. Then the phrase they used to combine came to mind. Would such a process even work for a non-hybrid? What, exactly, did such a thing entail? She’d never asked about it. She’d never thought she’d have to wear one Kamui, let alone go through multiple.

The pin was returned, and pulled again. Only one way to find out.

“Life Fiber Synchronise!”

This time she felt the blood drain away, exchanged for a rush of power. The Kamui she had made before had fought her every step of the way, trying to take her and leave nothing behind. But this was something more, something different. Her flesh burned and electricity crackled in her veins, almost to the point of overwhelming her senses. An ocean of energy rushed up to meet her, as if the thing was trying to pour all of itself into her. But she grit her teeth and weathered the rush, planting her feet to find ground in the weightlessness even as her voice escaped her mindlessly, offering noise just to remind her of her existence.

The sound gave her something to hold onto, and she clawed her way back from that all-consuming thrum of power, until they separated back into two beings. And yet, when her ion-fried senses came back to her in a rush, sharper than ever before, there was no need to push control upon it, even as it started to suit itself to fit her. Cloth into armour, the eyes grown longer, her legs swallowed up in thigh-highs and sharp red heels. It knew her well, despite this being their first meeting. The exposed midriff and chest left something to be desired, and skirts had never been her way, let alone one this short. But nevertheless, the uniform was very comfortable, and made no attempt to bite down. It simply was, humming warmly upon her.

The laboratory floor was scorched, the room pulsing with the smell of burning o-zone, and when the bulkhead cracked open once more, she was greeted by Doctor Matoi and Shiro, both holding freezing canisters.

“My lady! Are you all right?”

Shiro was on her in a second, snapping around her, aiming the canister here and there.

“More than fine, Iori. But thank you for the outburst of concern.”

He ceased pointing the nozzle at her chest, looking somewhat sheepish at the break in his usual stoicism.

“My apologies ma’am. The doctor didn’t inform me that we were moving forward with testing until just a minute ago, despite my requests to be present at the time.”

“Time is something we are short on boy. This was always going to be do or die, no matter when we pulled the trigger or who was around to watch.”

Doctor Matoi set his canister down, giving her a once-over.

“How is it? Any issues?”

“Not currently. I almost lost myself during the initial synchronising, but I believe we’ve come to an accord. This one is certainly more personable than others I’ve had the pleasure of meeting. You’ve both done good work.”

“Thank you, ma’am.” Shiro bowed stiffly at the waist. “I hope the design isn’t too troubling, but I assure you, you are quite protected, even the open skin. If I might?”

She handed him her shortest blade, and he swung it clumsily at her stomach. The edge impacted, but did not cut, nor was there any sign of injury. Shiro shook out his hand, returned the borrowed weapon.

“I’m not exactly one for fighting, but you get the gist.”

“You’ve seen how Junketsu sits upon Ryuko.” Doctor Matoi continued. “A full set of armour, no gaps. My theory is that maximum coverage gives the Life Fibers more power over the mind. As such, this one is designed to minimalize how much grip it can assert on you, while still providing adequate protection. How does it feel?”

She flexed her fingers, tensed her muscles. Feeling the limits of her body. Measuring the weight that now dwelled at the back of her mind.

“Ryuko is in here, isn’t she?”

The doctor paused for a second, then nodded.

“Blood, cerebrospinal fluid, bone marrow scrapings. How could you tell?”

“It is a strange thing to say. Childish. But it feels like her. As if she’s embracing me.”

“I’m sorry. My research was running up against a wall, and I could not see a way forward without a Kamui. So I’ve been robbing her during her blackouts. Her hybrid nature gave me the ability to help pull it away from the Life Fiber hivemind and become its own creature. In the same way that she is a human touched by the Life Fibers, Black Project #001 isn’t fully Life Fibers, but rather somewhat human. Although I wasn’t expecting him to show such agency in how he was worn. Fascin- “

He was stopped short by the fist in his gut, forced to a knee with spittle flaking his beard as Satsuki pulled back, a wall of ice baring down on him.

“That is for embarking upon this endeavour without my consultation nor consent from either of us. I will consider us even with this, but this Kamui is the only one that shall be made. Do you hear me? My sister will not be made a factory for Kamui production.”

“Of course, of course.” He wheezed. “Heaven willing, we will only need this one.”

“Good. Then stand aside. I have work to do.”

Shiro fell behind her as she strode from the room.

“Good to have you back ma’am.”

“Save the congratulations for later Iori. We have a city to save.”

* * *

“I’m coming with you.”

Nonon Jakuzure was a simple creature. All ego and utterly entrapped by Satsuki’s aura of authority. Nevertheless, even she had managed to surprise Houka on this occasion.

“Excuse me?”

“You’re going out after Maiko, right? I’m not sitting around waiting for the horde to get to us, and Satsuki’s going on ahead of me to take care of Ira. You’re going hunting, and I want in.”

With the electronic attacks on the city’s infrastructure thrown back and the Nudist’s IT teams properly instructed on how to prevent any future attacks, Houka was being indeed being sent to hack off one of Honnouji’s heads. Tsumugu had taken it upon himself to take Uzu out of the picture, and all power to him if he believed that they were actually on the same level. But how Nonon had acquired this information was a mystery. Not that he was going to give her the satisfaction of knowing she’d stolen a trick off them.

“I don’t require assistance.”

“Really? You don’t want back-up going into a fight? I thought you were meant to be the smart one.”

“Childish jibes don’t make up for the fact that you’re without a Goku Uniform. You’re dead weight to me.”

“You saw me fight in the Naturals Elections. Uniform or no, I can do good work.”

“I saw you get trounced by Mako, yes.”

“Oh no, I lost to the second-strongest of the former Elite Four! Guess I’ll lay down and wait to die!”

Houka rolled his eyes, stepping into bright blue light. The Spymaster Regalia came out on the other side.

“Have it your way. But I take no responsibility for your inability to recognise when you’re punching above your weight. If you get hurt, it’s on your head.”

“Obviously.”

She swung in behind him, sharing the Regalia’s seat.

“Don’t get too excited now, mutt.”

“Oh, I’m sorry. Am I meant to be feeling something pressing against my back right now? I believe you’re a few cups short of a bra for that trick.”

“You little shit.”

“Remember, you brought this upon yourself.”

The Spymaster Regalia spun up to full speed, racing out of the hanger and shooting out into the city, casting a wide arc as they took a scenic route to avoid the bulk of the fighting. Even from here, the massive figure of The Titan could be seen raging, tearing an apartment building up by the lowest floor and heaving it like a caber. Great clouds of dust covered the city with a thunderous boom as it came down, reducing a city block to nothing in an instant. Thousands of students flooded the flattened streets, laying into whatever defenders had been unfortunate enough to survive.

Nonon muttered something, but it was swallowed up by the fires of war and lost. He could probably guess as to what it had been. His hands tightened on the control handles, and the crumb of him that still acknowledged Satsuki Kiryuin’s prowess wished her luck in bringing Ira a decent end.

“So, what’s up with you and that monkey?”

“I dunno, what’s up with you and that laptop?”

The following argument made for an excellent distraction as they raced along, watching neighbourhood after neighbourhood swallowed up by waves of pink violence.

* * *

Everything was going splendidly. Her new pet was doing a fine job of reducing the city to rubble, pulverising streets and scattering buildings as they went. The students followed in their wake of destruction, overrunning positions and laying into the defenders with the fervour she demanded of her lessers. The Tsūtenkaku Tower loomed in the distance, the beacon that Uzu had pointed them towards in their quest to save Ryuko. Speaking of, the Four-Star was actually pulling a decent amount of weight, nipping ahead and wiping out resistance pockets to ease the army’s progress before the rest of them could even catch up to him. Not as well as if she’d been leading the charge, but she supposed that leadership had to come with some downsides.

As she watched, the golden asura leapt forward, going from building to building, speeding ahead all of a sudden. Nui squinted toward the horizon, her vision fixing upon the dot that Uzu was charging towards as easily as if she’d brought her theatre glasses. A figure in black, clashing with Uzu and bouncing off, the two exchanging rapid sword swings.

Oh, now things got really fun. A quick kick to the back of The Titan’s neck, and it launched into a burst of explosive forward motion, roaring in agony as it ploughed through a building and out into the cross-section where her sister and Uzu had come to blows. Her arrival brought them to a standstill, and The Titan was paused with a long needle jammed into the back of its neck. Opening up her favourite parasol, Nui fluttered down to join them.

“My, my, my. Satsuki, it’s been so long! Last time I saw you, well, it wasn’t really me I suppose, but I know what my cute little copies know, so it’s the thought that counts. But look at you, not learning from your mistakes! How novel, how unexpected, how adorable of you!”

She fixed her elder sister with her best look of professional condescension.

“Another fake Kamui, really? And this one’s even tackier than the last! Bared midriff really isn’t a good look on you. Doesn’t go with the eternal look of discontent.”

Satsuki didn’t say anything, just lowered herself into a fighting stance.

“Yes, that’s the one I’m talking about.”

“Hello to you too Nui. I’m surprised that you’ve actually entered the battlefield yourself. Seems I underestimated you.”

“Oh, come on Satsuki. That’s all you’ve got for me, after so long? In this situation?”

“I’m not playing into your games.”

“Spoilsport. Well, good news, this one is mandatory! As you can see, I’ve given Ira a little makeover.”

The Titan hissed and heaved, struggling to breathe. Liquid fire slopped from the blazing scars and dripped to the tarmac, little pillars of arid smoke building up around it.

“I’m a big fan of the lighting effects personally. What do you think?”

Again, nothing in return. Nui just beamed at her.

“Ah well, I suppose it doesn’t matter what you think. You just have to fight him. Oh, the tragedy! Friends turned lovers turned combatants to the death!”

“You can leave her to me ma’am. The Nudist headquarters are just over that way.” Uzu jutted with his chin.

“Oh Uzu, that’s just precious of you. But no. I’m not going to rely on a loser who’s already lost to her once, and besides, this is way more entertaining!”

She clicked her fingers, and a copy jumped out of nowhere, pulling the needle free. As if stuck by a bolt from the heavens, a full-body ripple raced through The Titan, sparking it into life once more. It kicked off, rushing forward in a mad dash towards Satsuki, carving up the ground with each heavy stomp. Satsuki was fast and away in an instant, making her way to the top of a building and fleeing west from rooftop to rooftop, feral roars chasing her as The Titan crashed through each foothold she abandoned in turn.

“Oh, this is already off to a great start! I can’t wait to see hold this goes!”

“Shall we follow them then?”

“Oh no, I’ve got people for that. The girls will record the whole affair for us. We’ve got a Ryuko to save.”

“Yes, I suppose we do.”

She took two steps, and counted the swords in motion, heading for her neck. All six came crashing down, but Nui was already out of reach, spinning away and shooting Uzu one of her best smiles.

“Oh Uzu. I really thought you were smarter than this. Not much smarter mind, but at least a smidgen.”

The War God Regalia fixed itself into stance, Nui beaming all the while.

“But hey, isn’t this crazy? I thought we had the same goal and everything, but I guess you’re just another lousy traitor. Ryuko will be so disappointed. Ah well, I’ll kiss her better and we’ll just tuck away this little lesson that exactly zero humans can be trusted. Such a shame.”

“Well, I guess we’re both trying to save her in our own way. But you’re not getting to Ryuko. I’m holding you here.”

Nui laughed. She laughed and laughed and laughed until she thought she might grow sick of it, only to remember the joke again as it tried to leave. And it was just as funny the second time around, setting her laughing twice as hard. But good manners prevailed, and she worked to calm herself down, retrieving a lacey handkerchief from her chest to dab her eyes with.

“You’ll hold me. You, of all people, are going to hold me here. That’s a good one. Every time you humans disappoint me; you always find a way to pick me back up again. Such fun.”

She got herself under control, disappearing the handkerchief and summoning Fleur de Mort to hand.

“But it really is such a shame that your funny little joke is all for naught.”

She held up her pinkie finger, a long red string trailing between her and Uzu’s lower back, connected to the bright pink signature on his lower back.

“Heel!”

The War God Regalia dropped to a knee, Nui striding around it smugly.

“What a good boy! But awfully stupid. I made your new uniform, perfected it. Do you really think Life Fibers crafted by yours truly would ever rebel against the greatest seamstress this world has ever known?”

No response from within. Nui gave a mocking pout.

“Aww, is someone giving me the silent treatment because his sloppy plan fell apart? Fine, be like that, it’s not like we’re friends anymore. Now then, be a lamb and go after Satsuki, would you? Chop-chop!”

The War God Regalia lurched to its feet, spinning on its heel the way Satsuki had gone. And came all the way back around, swinging three blades straight at Nui.

“What?”

She dipped under the swords, spinning away to avoid the two that tried to catch her dodge.

“Excuse me? Excuse me? What is this?”

Steam hissed from the gaps in the War God Regalia, the brand on the back unravelling into simple thread that blew away on the hot wind.

“What’s the matter Nui? Going to get all stroppy because your sloppy plan fell apart?”

Uzu kicked forward, all six swords awhirl about Nui. Every angle covered, forcing her into retreat. But no matter where he stabbed and slashed at, she was ever away, tantalisingly out of reach.

“I know for a fact that you can’t be trusted. That all of this is just a game to you. That the easiest way to figure you out is to think of the cruellest thing that can be done to a person, and imagine you smiling as you do it. The other uniforms are the same, aren’t they? No matter how much damage the students take, you’ll keep pulling their strings and forcing them up, make them keep fighting.”

“Clever boy. But I don’t care about that. Tell me what you did!”

“The only thing I could think of. I got a second opinion.”

“The Sewing Club? Those two-bit hacks? They undid my lovely work?”

“You didn’t even bother to hide it. Right there in hot pink on my back. You might want to stop underestimating humans, Nui Harime. They might not have been able to save all the improvements that you made to this uniform, but they’ve given me the chance to hold you here, to give Osaka the time it needs!”

Nui got clear, the two leaping back to opposite sides of the cross-section. Her smile was taut and fractured.

“You know, it’s a real shame. Even though I’m going to get what I want, this mockery has ruined my wonderful day out, and I’ll have to break it to Ryuko that one of her so-called friends is dead. Still, if the kicked dog doesn’t remember the pain, give it another boot and see if it learns the second time around. Not that you’ll be learning much from this.”

“Don’t worry Nui. I’m going right to her after this. I will save Ryuko. From Nudist Beach, from herself, and from your damned mother too. I might not be on your level, but I’ll keep clawing my way up, pushing my limits until I get there, even if it breaks me!”

“What a lovely sentiment. Pity that the ceiling of your skills is the floor I stand on. En garde!”

She thrust forward, sliding without friction and crashing into a cross-guard of blades. Uzu pulled up, launching Fleur de Mort away and slamming a headbutt down, cracking the three faces of his helm into the space Nui had been in as she nimbly twisted away. She was about to send the rapier in for a follow-up when a shadow fell upon her, a blocky hunk of green metal splitting the street. She was already free and away, but looking at the ugly thing almost made her wish that it had succeeded in landing on her.

“Wow, that is hideous, even for your lot. Why are all of you Nudists so lacking in any sort of dignity?”

“Dignity is second-place to results.” Tsumugu growled, his heavy-duty Dotonbori Robo winding up with the whirl of Sewing Miniguns revolving.

“Whatever helps you sleep at night sweetie. But you’re kind of interrupting a more important fight, so I’m going to have to ask you to leave.”

Fleur de Mort came racing down, but the annoying man leapt clean away, answering back with the heavy rattle of thousands of needles stabbing into the tarmac as Nui danced around the shots. But as she swept in for revenge, Uzu was in her face again, and he was getting annoying close to actually hitting her. She flowed through the spinning blades and punched for the Banshi, only to feel the bite of steel in her wrist instead. She pulled back before the blade could go all the way, both parties thrown to opposite sides of the road. Uzu and Tsumugu landed together, weapons raised.

“So, you’ve finally found the honour to go turncoat. About time.”

“I’ve always been on the right side. Just had to hide it.”

“Good boy. You’ll make a fine Nudist.”

“Not bloody likely.”

“Hmph. Either way, let’s put her down.”

“You? Put me down? That is a good joke. Not quite as good as Uzu’s from earlier, but then again, you’re not buying into your own stupidity quite as much.”

A whistle, and the two men were forced to split as Fleur darted back the other way. It settled nicely in her palm, the slit in her wrist sealing back up. Uzu had earned the honour of dying second for that little insult.

“But still, better to rid the world of two idiots instead of just the one. Let’s play, shall we?”

* * *

Satsuki spared only a brief glance back as she led Ira away, watching Uzu go about his word and swing on Nui. The sight of her effortlessly dodging away almost turned her back around, but then Ira crashed through the supermarket behind her and she was off on her own mission again. It was reassuring, to know that the boy hadn’t lost his faith in her the same way Houka had, racing ahead to intercept her dash across the city and warning her of Nui’s schemes under the guise of a swordfight. Controlled uniforms, Life Fiber patches sown directly onto Ira’s skin.

But then he had sworn to hold Nui off, keep her away from Satsuki and Ryuko both to buy them time for what needed to be done. The Osakan forces he’d pretended to defeat had been shepherded out of Ira’s path and into the Nudist spaces under the city, and already they were manoeuvring to entrap the Honnouji forces, now armed with better knowledge of how to slow them down. If she could remove Ira from the equation one way or another, Houka and Nonon were taking Maiko down. Strength, intelligence and numbers could be removed one fell swoop, turning the battle the other way in seconds.

But all of this depended on him managing to keep Nui annoyed and busy for as long as possible. But an annoyed and busy Nui was one who’d be out to kill as quickly as she could, and as much as she wanted to believe in Uzu, she just didn’t know if he could survive for long enough for her to get back to him. Losing the piece she’d just reclaimed was worse than not having it at all.

Another bellow shook the air and reverberated through the stone and concrete, Ira swinging at her and smashing a building to pieces as she leapt away. Not far to go now. They were almost to the outskirts of the city, evacuated and abandoned. She would hold him there, remove each patch one by one until Nui’s art couldn’t sustain itself any longer.

Another long leap, and she cleared two buildings at once. The lightness granted to her by the Kamui was beyond the constrained strength of her own failed project, fought for with every movement. If the plan had required her to run across the world to keep Ira at bay, she could have done it easily. The first swing she’d offered back had been so fast and strong that Bakuzan-Prime had almost gone flying off after the slice of energy she’d launched. The world seemed clearer, not a single detail slipping past her focus.

Was this how Ryuko and Nui felt all the time? This lightness of being, this magma bubbling just under the skin? If Ragyo’s initial experiments had succeeded, would she too have been privy to this sort of power?

No sense in being jealous over it. She’d long since tidied away that bitter emotion, watching her sisters go from the bottom floor of the Kiryuin manor to the roof in a single bound and leap from the top without suffering a scratch. If she too had accepted Life Fibers into herself as a child, the world would truly be without hope. Strength of her own will and efforts had carried her this far, and now she had the ability to augment it further. Despite the methods used to create the Kamui, she would thank Doctor Matoi for his efforts after the battle. For the first time in many years, she finally felt as if she could strike back against her mother.

Ira swung back and threw out a mile-long clothesline, scraping rooftops clean as he passed. She flipped over the incoming arm, firing a number of cuts back in return. Fresh wounds opened up on his hands as he shielded himself, new fire bursting out the cracks in the skin. He roared and barrelled forwards yet again, aiming for the building just ahead of her. She stopped her own charge, and realised too late that it had been a bluff, as he switched direction on a dime, crashing into the office she had been standing on.

Concrete chunks barraged her as the building exploded, deep thuds echoing into her bones. With no way to change direction, the fist that followed through struck her cleanly from the air. Sent spiralling over the city, she barked orders for the Kamui to achieve flight, same as she’d seen Junketsu do. But no booster formed around her legs, and she became gravity’s victim, smashing through brick and wood and landing amongst the battered remains of a florist. Seeing as she should have been dead from such an impact, getting away with nought but grievous pain was pretty light by comparison.

She found her feet, striding out the broken window as Ira threw himself over buildings, reducing the nearby park to churned earth and upturned trees with his landing. Another hellish bellow rocked the world, arms open and gauntlet thrown down. They were a good distance out now, away from any possible interference or causalities, although she scanned, looking for glimpses of pink dresses about.

“Kamui, I don’t know how much you know about your own abilities, but you possess the power to transform yourself. Search my memories, look for the white uniform within them and copy what it can do. I will instruct you as to when I will require assistance. Understood?”

No fluttering scarf to ease conversation now, so she just had to assume it could understand her. She let out a long breath as Ira started another charge, steam rolling off his body as he stormed towards her.

“Hold steady Ira. You’ll be saved soon enough.”

A massive fist came screaming down towards her, and she leapt up to meet it.


End file.
